A CATSKILLS WILDFIRE?

My experience of hiking numerous trails in the southeast Catskills, as well as bushwhacking from one corner of Woodstock to the other (approx. 10x20 miles), and following its many old roads, has made me very familiar with the state of our forest and I am extremely concerned with the potential for devastating forest fires, wildfires, and even firestorms, here. This is what has led me to write this in an effort to share those concerns and hopefully to find a way to address them. I understand fully that I’m not a forester, nor an expert on wildfires, but I am knowledgeable about our woods and it is obvious that we have made a real mess of them. I think we face the serious potential for real disaster, and it was the smoke from recent fires in Canada that was a major impetus for me to write this - it could happen here (as of this writing - 2024 - due to serious drought last year the northeast experienced hundreds of brushfires, some of which have been major, burning 2,000+ acres). Major forest fires and catastrophic wildfires are not only possible here now, but in the next serious drought are very likely unless existing conditions are addressed. I also think the subject has to be carefully studied, then ways found to hopefully avoid this situation - for which I have some ideas.

BACKGROUND - In over 30 years writing about our wonderful corner of the Catskills, I’ve danced around this topic numerous times, sometimes feeling like “a voice in the wilderness”. Well, there’s no other way to put it, but that wilderness could well go up in flames in a very similar fashion to what we’ve all been watching all around the world when our next drought occurs. This could be due to someone’s ill-placed cigarette, a poorly-managed campfire or a misplaced catalytic converter. I much prefer the idea of writing positive things about this incredible region, but the truth is that we are in grave danger. Not “just” the forest, but - since there are now so many homes and businesses in the woods - everything many people have worked their whole lives to build. Even if somehow we keep getting enough rain to stave off disaster for now, we will only be putting off the inevitable for another time, unless we take appropriate action and do so very soon. Going forward I would think that the first step should be to study this situation professionally and thoroughly and try to determine exactly what that situation is (though it’s pretty obvious that in some locations the woods need to be cleared of underbrush ASAP). Perhaps there needs to be a two-track approach - while studying the broader issue maybe we should start clearing immediately where the need is obvious. First, some background.

FIRE HISTORY - Lightning has caused fires for millions of years. Fire itself is not a bad thing and has been harnessed by humans for at least the last several hundred thousand years. Many animal- and plant-species show adaptations to environments that burned periodically. It was used as a tool by people in North America for many purposes, including: clearing land around settlements to reduce fire-risk to that settlement; to reduce the effects of insects and limit the populations of snakes around villages; for agricultural purposes; to propagate Chestnut, Oak and Hickory; to shape dugout canoes; to clear the forest floor to ease travel and to open up the woods for hunters, and sometimes to drive game for hunting. When colonists arrived they found and reported vast areas along the coast and up the major and minor river valleys that were open, “park-like” and that showed evidence of deft use of fire as a tool. I suspect Indigenous towns and villages were located within these protected zones (maybe ours should be, too). For more on Native uses of fire I highly recommend “Forgotten Fires - Native Americans and the Transient Wilderness”, by Omer C. Stewart, 2002, University of Oklahoma Press. Writing in 1908, Stewart was the first modern ecologist to understand the many ways that Indigenous Peoples of North America had effectively used fire to sculpt our landscape (thanks to Ryan Trapani of the Catskill Forest Association for making me aware of this great book). By the 1700s and early 1800s, the full effect of colonization was occurring - areas that had been well- manicured to prevent fires were no longer being maintained, because those that had taken such good care of the land and kept fire at bay (even sculpting the forest with it) were either dead from disease or forcefully removed far away. As the original people here were devastated, so was their land, the mismanagement of which led to the devastating fires that would soon scourge the Catskills.

ORIGIN OF THE CATSKILL PARK - In much of the 1800s portions of the Catskills were a burnt, depleted wasteland due to slash-and-burn farming practices, over-logging that left all the small stuff (called “slash”) to await the next errant spark from unprotected train-engines and the gross over-harvesting of the Hemlocks for their bark (photo, below, from The Adirondack Experience). Also, large clearings around quarries and the extensive destruction of hardwoods for charcoal- making contributed greatly. “At the time of the creation of the Forest Preserve, the Catskills forests were in poor shape. They had been heavily over-cut for lumber, tanning, charcoal, and pasture.” (Kudish, Michael, “The Catskill Forest: A History”, pg.75). Stream-life was seriously challenged as some water-courses turned to lye when combined with the vast amounts of wind- blown ash. Because of this there was a period when there were almost no native Brook Trout in some of our streams. These are some of the reasons New York State created the Adirondack Park in 1892 and the Catskills Park in 1904 (Van Valkenburgh, Norman, & Olney, Chris, “History of the Catskill Park and Forest Preserve”). Slowly the mountains have reforested and life has returned to our creeks. Firetowers were set up along with people to man them and crews to fight fires - though it was now fire suppression - “fire is bad” - instead of promoting fire direction, which is used to clean the woods (and can actually prevent forest fires by not giving a brushfire a “ladder” to climb to become a crown- or forest-fire). Yes, the Catskills still used to burn occasionally - from sparks from trains, etc. - but there was a difference. In the old days the authorities would let some fires - if remote - burn themselves out. Now we can’t do that with all the new homes in the woods. Also, I think there are more trees in towns and villages than ever, putting them at risk, as well. Fire-crews will have to try to put out more fires - and also just like out west - will end up putting themselves in great danger (sadly, a firefighter died fighting brushfires last year in the region). Our firetowers were built because of this history and became defunct once airplanes were used to spot fires. Unfortunately, even with planes spotting from the air, as we’ve all watched out west, wildfires can moveincredibly fast, and as we saw in Lahaina, Hawaii, and Paradise, California, as well as recently in Los Angeles, turn rapidly in certain conditions and locations into deadly firestorms. We have a lot of work to do to avoid this possible scenario here. In the meanwhile, let’s make sure nobody accidentally starts any fires. Maybe one way to do so is to educate people more in the matter and increase fines and jail-time for those who do start them intentionally. In a way the Catskills now suffer from their success - we have come a very long way from the fire-ravaged landscape of the 19th-century, our hills reforesting gloriously into a

rich, verdant landscape. So much so, that perhaps we’ve let it all go too far and grown too thick, with much, much thinning to do. Hopefully, we still have time. Woods-wise, perhaps we now have an “embarrassment of riches”.

OVERABUNDANCE OF UNDERBRUSH - Our great danger stems from a combination of factors. One major contributing element here is the rampant and incredible overgrowth of Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifola) in some areas. Long held in check by native peoples - and settlers later on - who all burnt it back to encourage growth of blueberries and huckleberries - Laurel now dominates many local southeast Catskills mountain tops and well down their sides. People love to have this native rhododendron growing nearby and enjoy their flowers. The problem, though, is that Mountain Laurel is extremely flammable, especially when dry. Its

flammability directly compares to Mesquite in the west, also a notable fuel for wildfires. Ideally, over the past decades, perhaps Laurel should have been consistently thinned out and removed, but it wasn’t and - coupled with the other main factor here - phenomenal amounts of underbrush that have built up after numerous hurricanes and other storms - we have allowed the makings for a worst-case scenario - a forest-fire. It could well be that by letting the laurel grow out of control, and by letting underbrush build up in the forest, we have created a perfect “ladder” for fire to reach our forest-canopy. Major forest-fires are possible here now, I believe - and they probably could have been prevented.

HOW TO PROCEED? We have numerous tools at our disposal to deal with them, including Controlled or Prescribed Burns (what Indigenous Peoples call Cultural Burning) and manual removal. As dangerous as controlled burns can be, I believe we must do them more if we want to reduce the chances of an even greater catastrophe. Besides, it may well be (and as the

Indians experience so well elucidated in Stewarts historically important and informative book shows) that extensive, long-term controlled burning could help restore our entire forest to much greater health. Another book that I highly recommend is “Ignition:Lighting Fires in a Burning World”, by M.R. O’Connor. This book is the perfect complement to Stewarts “Forgotten Fires” because it elucidates exactly how to use prescribed burns to protect our forests and she shows how the growing movement across the country of Prescribed Burn Associations (PBAs) is using Indigenous fire-practices to make woods healthier and therefore less likely to be destroyed by wildfire. PBAs are groups and networks of private landowners and others that are banding together to use prescribed burns effectively. New Jersey just passed a Prescribed Burn Act that promotes prescribed burns to aid its ecology. This statute “recognizes the importance of prescribed fire for both reducing the risk

of wildfire and to sustain natural ecology”. Other examples are the Albany Pine Bush Preserve and Mohonk Preserve which both use controlled burning on their land. NYS DEC has had great success with

Prescribed Burning in Long Island. Other contributing factors to our fire-danger are White- and Red Pine trees and flammable roof- shingles. I see so many houses with highly-flammable pines (veritable torches when dry) overhead or nearby. One idea is to encourage our Towns, Counties, PBAs and the State to organize an Emergency Task Force and start getting crews in the woods to clear out the underbrush that can’t be burned (too close to dwellings, for example). The same images we’ve watched in Northern California, Hawaii and other places CAN - and may well - happen here some day, fires sweeping up and over mountains, burning everything in their paths, including wildlife. We’ve all seen the videos of wildfires that became firestorms. I’ve never hoped so much that I was wrong, but I don’t think so. Recent fires closer to home bear my concerns out. My other greatest hope (fantasy?) is that we will not have any of these major disasters befall us anytime soon and will have the time to bolster our defenses against uncontrolled fires. Let’s think positive for a moment and say a study shows that we can alleviate these accrued conditions - will we have the leadership and will to follow-through on what it will take to do so? I don’t know. It will probably take multiple agencies, municipalities and organizations many months - more likely years - to organize and execute an in-depth plan to deal with this problem. It might mean hundreds of workers in the woods for extended periods. Alternatively, do we want to continue to see hundreds of firefighters fighting - with some dying - to fix a problem we had a chance to fix ahead of time? I don’t think so. People will also say it’s too expensive. I say it is more expensive not to - in the cost of rebuilding lost businesses, homes and infrastructure, to say nothing of the untold very real cost of the effect of catastrophic wildfires on human life and well-being (for example, I suggest Googling “is wildfire smoke toxic?”). One way to reduce the cost that I see is to make it easier and faster for PBAs to function, by making the permit process less onerous. Our neighbor to the south - New Jersey - has been using prescribed burns successfully for years and its use is growing there - why not here? New Yorkers might assume that we’ll always get enough rain - that is not the case - sooner or later we will have another major drought and the conditions we’ve all witnessed will only be worse. Then there will really be hand-wringing and finger-pointing aplenty.

LEARN FROM OTHERS MISTAKES - Some of the Bel Air suburbs of L.A. that had bad fires changed their zoning to require fire-proof roofing, a 100-foot buffer around a house and no mesquite or grasses next to a building. Maybe that is one solution. Let’s see if we can learn from their mistakes - they did. I propose that an overarching group be formed - a Catskills Wildfire Avoidance Working-Group, as it were, made up of all levels of government, Federal, State, County and Towns, together with NGOs (PBAs), all perhaps organized and spearheaded by top regional groups almost perfectly designed for the purpose - the very capable Cornell Cooperative Extension ( ulster.cce.cornell.edu ) and the Catskill Forest Association ( catskillforest.org ) - to first of all initiate a study of the problem (I hope I’m wrong and that the conditions I describe are not as widespread and deep as I’m afraid they are) and then determine ways to remedy it. The conditions that exist that we need to deal with include: great over abundances of underbrush left from numerous hurricanes and nor’easters; vast amounts of wildly proliferating Mountain Laurel (which is very flammable, particularly when dry); the vast, overgrown plantations of Red- and White Pines planted surrounding our reservoirs (I would imagine that large amounts of ash would not be a welcome ingredient in any reservoir) and the general overgrown thickness of our woods.

Then the Working Group will have to come up with other ways to try to avoid devastating fires, like: suggest DEC close parks when a certain degree of fire-danger occurs to prevent errant camp-fires from igniting leaf-litter; educating the public about how to be more careful with fires outdoors; the passage of laws that make starting fires purposely a major crime; insisting that power-lines be buried more often (as they do in Northern California now after major fires were caused by downed lines); suggesting (mandating?) that municipalities work to make homes and businesses eventually be more fire-proof (as towns that burnt in Southern California did by changing zoning and enforcing those changes). I’m sure we must have other tools available, as well.

Please - let’s not let this worst-case scenario play out. We have all watched firestorms and wildfires happen in other places. Can we all please learn from ours and others mistakes and work hard to make our woods healthier, to make the Catskills truly an example of how people and nature can not only coexist, but thrive together? I know this is a major, probably multi-year, project (if we are lucky and have the time). It will demand that we all work hard together towards eliminating - or at least mitigating - this potential disaster. I think we can.

I hope to initiate a serious discussion of the topic and to see implementation of ways to

effectively reduce this major threat to us all and our region.

Thank you, Dave Holden / (845)594-4863 / woodstocktrails@gmail.com