Pine Barrens prescribed fires: A renewal force
2024 Summer Camp Guide
2024 Summer Camp Guidep

Community News

Pine Barrens prescribed fires: A renewal force
3/9/2017 Volume XLVII, No. 10

Pillars of smoke could be seen reaching high into the sky from this week’s Pine Barrens fire, which burned about 1,000 acres of the Franklin Parker Preserve in Burlington County.

The blaze was not an accident, the result of a lightning strike, a cigarette tossed from a car window or a campfire gone awry. Rather, it was a “controlled burn,” or prescribed burn, performed under exacting conditions of temperature, humidity and wind by the New Jersey Forest Fire Service, in cooperation with New Jersey Conservation Foundation.  A similar controlled burn scorched 800 acres of the same preserve two weeks earlier.

While 1,800 acres of charred forest in a nature preserve may sound like an ecological catastrophe, it’s actually just the opposite. Fire is an essential ingredient in making and keeping the Pine Barrens what they have been for thousands of years.

“Many people tend to think of these fires as a destructive thing,” said Russell Juelg, NJ Conservation’s senior Pine Barrens land steward and educator. “Ecologists and others tend to look at it as a renewal force. It’s always surprising how fast the Pine Barrens bounces back from a hot fire.”

The Pine Barrens are dominated by pitch pine trees, which are uniquely suited to survive – and thrive - in fire conditions. Thick bark protects them from serious fire damage, and they are often able to generate new shoots right out of fire-blackened stumps.

Flames consume dry leaves, needles and twigs on the forest floor, while thinning the tree canopy overhead. Heat induces pitch pinecones to open and release their seeds. Seeds can reach the soil and germinate in the newly-available sunlight.

Hot fires kill more oak trees than pitch pines, helping maintain the Pine Barrens forest as a pine-dominated system. Without fires, the balance eventually tips toward oak trees, altering the character of the Pine Barrens and making habitats unsuitable for rare and characteristic species.

Shrub oaks, unlike larger tree-form oaks, are well adapted to fires. Shrub oak species like blackjack and scrub oaks have large, thick, tuberous root systems unaffected by fire. “It’s like a big, woody potato underground,” noted Russell. “It responds by putting out vigorous shoots.”

Pitch pine/scrub oak forests are globally rare habitats, and fires enhanced their value for all kinds of birds, including northern towhees, prairie warblers and a host of other species whose mid-Atlantic stronghold is in the New Jersey Pine Barrens.

After a large, hot fire sweeps through the crowns of the pine trees, the result is some areas of open canopy, open understory, abundant sunlight on the forest floor, and richer soil due to ashes.  This open habitat is a type of Pine Barrens savanna, and it’s perfect for a wide variety of native grasses and wildflowers.

Before New Jersey was settled by European colonists, lightning and probably Native Americans periodically ignited major fires that scorched large swaths of the Pine Barrens, creating and maintaining the savanna landscape.

Because so many people now live in and around the Pine Barrens, we’ve become skilled at controlling and preventing wildfires. Homes and human lives are better protected, but Pine Barrens savannah habitats have dwindled, leaving fewer species of savanna plants and the animals that depend on them – including redheaded woodpeckers, bluebirds, bobwhites, various moths, butterflies like the frosted elfin, and scores of rare wildflowers.

The two prescribed burns of the past month will bring back patches of savanna habitat while protecting villages like Chatsworth - surrounded by the Franklin Parker Preserve - from the hazard of wildfires.  

“Only about 10 percent of pine trees will actually die,” predicted Dr. Emile DeVito, New Jersey Conservation Foundation’s staff biologist. “But the extra patches of sunlight, fallen logs and bare sand will create critical habitat needed by rare populations that depend upon fires.”

The pines, ferns and huckleberries will re-sprout quickly. In a few months, it will be difficult for casual observers to notice that a hot fire occurred … unless they rub their hands on the charcoal-laden tree trunks!

The preserve is a fascinating place for botanists and researchers studying the effects of fire. One researcher, Steve Mason from Drexel University, is conducting a study of how insects respond to fires in the Pine Barrens. Dr. Nicholas Skowronski of the U.S. Forest Service Northern Research Station brought a team of international climate scientists to study the burn, including researchers from Germany, Venezuela and Great Britain.

Anyone interested in seeing how a Pine Barrens forest rebounds from fire is invited to visit the Franklin Parker Preserve this spring and summer. Most of the preserve’s trails go through the burned areas, and all are open.

Kudos to the New Jersey Forest Fire Service for their expertise in conducting the prescribed burns safely and effectively! To learn more about their work, visit http://www.state.nj.us/dep/parksandforests/fire/.

For more information about the Franklin Parker Preserve, including trail maps, go to http://www.njconservation.org/franklinparkerpreserve.htm.

And to learn more about preserving New Jersey’s land and natural resources, visit the New Jersey Conservation Foundation website at www.njconservation.org or contact me at info@njconservation.org.

POSTS

Still the Garden State!

Protect New Jersey's wildlife homes

Preserved lands protect clean air and water

To tree or not to tree?

Hard cider in the Garden State

Turkey Time

American shad return to New Jersey river after 173 years

Act now to avoid worst climate impacts

NJ Natural Lands Trust celebrates 50 years

Must love bats!

Move and improve your health!

Renewable energy: Save money and our land, water, air and health

Speak up for endangered species!

Save the bugs!

Check out New Jersey's fall bird migration

A little bit of respect...for native plants!

Explore New Jersey's wildflower meadows

All aboard floating classrooms

Catch the Perseids meteor shower!

Check out the 'fun' in fungi

Too hot to think? Studies shows heat affects your brain

Love NJ's outdoors? Take action now!

New Jersey's official reptile, the bog turtle

Sea level rise and New Jersey: Not perfect together

These New Jersey plants have an appetite for insects

Explore the Pine Barrens through paddles, hikes and tours

Like to jog? 'Plog' instead and keep NJ clean

Love Jersey fruit? Thank our native pollinators!

Good news for globally rare swamp pink lilies

Say cheese! Remote cameras aid wildlife research

Begone, single-use plastic bags!

3,000 birds and counting for 'bluebird grandfather'

The Pine Barrens gets some help from its friends

A clean energy future for New Jersey

Cowtown and rare grassland birds, perfect together

Fight light pollution during International Dark Sky Week

New film tells story of how Petty's Island was saved

Ten years of nipping invasive species in the bud

Welcome spring in a county park

Go for a walk and feel better!

Grab a friend and go outside

Recycle your way to zero waste!

Last call for winter wildlife watching on Jersey coast

Without its 'understory' layer, the forest will collapse

From whale songs to poetry, a remarkable journey

A cleaner, greener New Jersey

Let's keep New Jersey the Garden State, not the Pipeline State

New Jersey's winter hikes

'Trees don't vote' but Byrne saved Pine Barrens anyway

Governor-elect Murphy should set new course on the environment

ARCHIVE

December 2018
November 2018
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
July 2018
June 2018
May 2018
April 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
November 2017
October 2017
September 2017
August 2017
July 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015
November 2015
October 2015
September 2015
August 2015
July 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
March 2015
February 2015
January 2015
December 2014
November 2014
October 2014
September 2014
August 2014
July 2014
June 2014
May 2014
April 2014
March 2014
February 2014
January 2014
December 2013
November 2013
October 2013
September 2013
August 2013
July 2013
June 2013
May 2013
April 2013
March 2013
February 2013
January 2013
December 2012
November 2012
October 2012
September 2012
August 2012
July 2012
June 2012
May 2012
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
June 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
January 2011

CLICK FOR RECENT POSTS



     coupon           photos     
WITH THIS COUPON
$50 off for the first month of lessons
School of Rock - Doylestown
88 South Main Street
Doylestown, PA 18901
215-230-3406
https://locations.schoolofrock.com/doylestown/music-camps/?utm_source=communities-alive&utm_medium=dynamic-ad&utm_campaign=general
Coupons may not be combined.
Not valid with other offers or prior purchases.
Printed online at BensalemAlive.com.

-Print Coupon

© BucksCountyAlive.com - Mikula Web Solutions. All rights reserved.
Redistribution of coupons in printed or electronic form is prohibited.