The Woods of Peaks Island: Part I—Fire Safety

The Woods of Peaks Island: Part I—Fire Safety

Volume I, Issue 5

This first part of a two-part article about the woods of Peaks Island will focus on what has been done over the years by many, notably members of the Peaks Island Land Preserve (PILP), to mitigate the risk of a forest fire. It will look at ‘best practices’ and what residents of Peaks can do now and in the future to mitigate the danger of wildfire. The second part, in the next issue of the Peaks Island News, will focus on the health and well-being of our woods.  

This past winter brought home to many of us, in a powerful and personal way, the increasing severity of winds and storm surges. With changing weather patterns and warmer, drier summers, residents of Peaks are looking at the need for increasing vigilance against forest fires. As an unbridged island, Peaks Island is vulnerable, and the fires of the past are chiseled into the island’s collective memory: the Gem Fire in 1934, the fire of 1936 which consumed 17 buildings in Forest City, the fire in 1957, in which a large portion of the abandoned military reservation burned. More recently, in June of 2020, the post office caught fire, and in May of 2021 two houses, a boat, and a car were destroyed. Even more recently, a smoldering unextinguished campfire in the woods was discovered by a trail walker.

This spring, the board of PILP invited Charles Moreno, a forestry ecologist with 40 years experience, to walk some of PILP’s trails and provide his recommendations on how to manage the forests, both for fire protection and general forest health. He spent most of a day, May 15th, with seven PILP board members hiking through some of the more heavily wooded sections of our island’s protected sites. Moreno observed that the soils here, as on other Casco Bay islands, are particularly thin: one to two inches over rock. This leads to the instability of trees and the likelihood of blowdowns after high winds. In addition to storm-downed trees, he said, beech leaf disease (BLD), caused by a microscopic nematode, is more than likely to create widespread mortality of beech trees. On Reservoir Road, Moreno pointed out trees on Peaks Island already infected with this disease, and within the next 2 to 3 years, said that we can expect to see an increase in fallen trees from BLD. 

Roads, he said, are the most dependable fire breaks on Peaks, together with the wetlands. (Smoky the Bear thanks the beavers.)

Prescribed fires to reduce ground-level fuels are becoming an established practice in other parts of the country as a tool for fire prevention but are still not commonly used in New England. The accepted practice here is to bring trunks, limbs, and woody debris as close as possible to ground level where moisture is highest; this practice not only hastens decomposition and reduces the risk of fire but also provides nourishment for the soil, bugs, beetles, and birds. 

For many years, Robert van Der Steenhoven and Steve Bushey have done volunteer work in the woods of Peaks Island exactly in this way: keeping trails open, cutting large logs, and bringing down ‘leaners’ (trees that have died but have not fallen flat). In recent years, a small chainsaw group has joined them in helping to bring woody debris to ground level where it can decompose as quickly as possible. Last year, an area was cleared next to the Clark Woods that presented fire danger to a neighboring house abutter. 

It comes as no surprise that humans represent the greatest fire risk to the woods. In the Northeast, May is generally one of the highest months for forest fires, with its relatively low humidity and the winter’s burden of dried leaves and pine needles carpeting the ground.

Campfires are not legal in the woods of Peaks, for good reason. Fires travel fast during dry months and a campfire that appears to be quenched can travel underground through root systems and smolder undetected. Visitors to Peaks may not understand this. If you see a campfire in the woods, it needs to be put out immediately. Elsewhere on the island, fires (not in a standard outdoor fireplace or pit) require a permit available from the fire department.

Charles Moreno made the strong point that residents with homes closest to wooded areas have a special responsibility to insure that they have done what they can to create defensible space around their dwellings. The Maine Forest Service (https://www.maine.gov/dacf/mfs/forest_protection/firewise/homeowners.html) offers excellent online advice to homeowners. Here’s a sample of a few no-cost or low-cost things things you can do:

- Trim tree branches that overhang your home.

- Remove conifer shrubs and dead wood from close to your house; replace flammable vegetation with fire resistant native shrubs (listed on the maine.gov site.)

- Move your firewood pile to a safe distance from your home.

- Attach a hose (at least 100 feet long) to an outside faucet during warm months. 

- Install a visible house number, easily seen from the street.

- For residents in particularly vulnerable locations, consider a Firewise USA assessment of your home (https://www.nfpa.org/downloadable-resources/guides-and-manuals/firewise-usa-recognition-program-community-wildfire-risk-assessment).

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One of the many challenges of fire control on Peaks Island is the difficulty of emergency personnel locating a particular spot in the interior of the island. Recently, as mentioned earlier in this article, a dog walker found a smoldering campfire and was fortunate to run into Steve Bushey, who managed to locate cell service and contacted Robert van der Steenhoven and the fire department. Between them all, the fire was extinguished. But what if the dog walker had not found Steve Bushey, what if there had been no one available to help the fire department locate this remote spot with no street address? 

Michelle Brown and Robert van der Steenhoven have devised a system for pinpointing a location in the interior of the island. To discuss the system, they met with the Maine Forest Service, the Community Policing Officer, the Portland Fire Chief, and Portland Fire Marshall. With the help of Marty Braun, who designed tree tags for the Parker Preserve and 100 Acre Wood, this system is about to be pilot tested. You should begin seeing tree tags in those sections of the woods soon.

During the past two years Art Lavoie from the Maine Forest Service, has walked our trails and done helpful spot checks on the island. The people who have been engaged with fire prevention efforts would probably be the first to say that we could do more. Peaks Island could benefit from a paid professional to help maintain trails, clear debris, and monitor the woods. How we get the help we need—both volunteer and paid—to write grants and find other sources of funding, is a question well worth asking now. 

In the meantime, Charles Moreno, the expert in forest ecology mentioned above, will be speaking on forest management for PILP’s Annual Meeting on July 9th at the Fifth Maine. Refreshments will roll out at 6 p.m., followed by a brief meeting, then a talk about the woods. All PILP members are welcome. We’d love to see you there, and if you’re not already a member, please come and sign up. 

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