The Nature Conservancy says less than a dozen forests in the world are similar to one found in Ossipee New Hampshire.
This weekend, the organization purposely burned more than 30 acres of the rare ecosystem – in order to protect the habitat and the state’s last intact example of Pine Barrens.
New Hampshire Public Radio’s Amy Quinton reports.
Workers supervise the controlled burn. (Eric Aldrich/The Nature Conservancy)
15-thousand years ago, melting glaciers sent torrents of water filled with sandy debris into a valley where the towns of Ossipee, Tamworth and Madison now sit.
(nat sound 1044 walking2)
As we walk through the area now, the nutrient poor sandy soil is perfect for the Pitch pine and scrub oak trees that grow in abundance.
Eric1(see how thick this is, imagine trying to walk through that, it’s like a wall)
That’s Eric Aldrich with the Nature Conservancy.
He says the organization has mowed down some of the undergrowth in these woods, getting ready to burn about 30 acres.
(this we’ve treated, and what we see is a very open area almost like a park with pitch pine and down below scrub oak, and low sweet blueberry and ferns and not much else)
The Nature Conservancy has spent five years preparing for this day – the first prescribed burn in the Ossipee Pine Barrens.
Ecologists have walked these woods, measuring fuel loads – or sticks and branches - to determine how a fire will behave.
Aldrich says fire plays a crucial role in the pine barrens ecosystem.
1052 “we know fire came through the pine barrens every 25 to 50 years through lightening strikes and it’s the reason why this habitat has developed the way it has, without fire you lose the very diverse structure that exists here in the pine barrens.”
Without fire, these woods could be overrun by fire intolerant species like white pine, red maple and certain shrubs.
Encroachment of those species could wipe out the fire-tolerant pitch pine and scrub oak and cause dangerous wildfires.
And both of those trees play a vital role for wildlife habitats, including 13 rare moths and butterflies.
Parker Schuerman from Maine’s Nature Conservancy is a fire ecologist helping with the prescribed burn.
He says many of the insect varieties here are unique.
Parker1 1063 “If you’re out here in May or August or even September on a warm night, the different moths in the air are just incredible. You put a light trap out and you can get 70 or 80 different moths coming in there”
Birds also feed on those moths and insects.
Jeff Lougee, Mt Washington Valley Program Manager for the Nature Conservancy, says this is probably the best place in New Hampshire to see towhees, nighthawks, and whip-poor-wills.
Jeff1 “I lead trips sometimes in the spring or early summer to see some of these nocturnal birds and people will say jeez I haven’t heard a whip-poor-will in 50 years, and this just happens to be a strong for them in NH, it’s a bird that’s declined across its range.”
But conducting a prescribed burn is no easy task.
About two dozen trained men and women from Conservancy staff in New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts are helping out.
1071 parkernat (nat sound:line bosses take your time, develop your black, make sure you look for things that might surprise you…then under)
Workers use drip torches to ignite vegetation. (Eric Aldrich/The Nature Conservancy)
Fire Ecologist Parker Shuerman, who says he’s conducted more than 200 prescribed burns, gives last minute safety instructions to the crew.
(then up..)
They walk in three groups carrying drip torches to ignite the vegetation.
(first flame)//brushfire
As the first flame burns, crews still have to be concerned about weather.
Too much wind, wind in the wrong direction, or ground that’s too wet can cause difficulties.
Parkernat2 (right now you’re not going to have to encourage it very much because we’re getting a southeast instead of a south west so take your time don’t put a lot of fire on the ground yet)
As Scheurman shouts instructions to crews, he also says he uses his drip torch like a paint brush, with the goal to change the forest structure.
scheurmanfire :54 what we try to do is we think about what ecological end point we want to get to and can we do it with one fire, can we do it with two, three, how many entries do we want to get, do we encourage a shrubland thicket, the New England cottontail likes thickets, the northern black racer snake likes shrubs in the middle of the meadows, so each animal or plant requires different structural arrangements.
NHPR's Amy Quinton records the sounds of the fire. (Eric Aldrich/The Nature Conservancy)
To fire ecologists like Scheurman, the charred black that remains on the forest floor doesn’t look bad.
For many plants and animals, it’s a beginning.
3:20 with these nutrient poor soils the plants and animals rely on that energy, the nutrients from this they need a snack, that’s what the fire does. It’s hard to believe that destroying something and that’s what it looks like to us, provides more habitat, more nutrients, but that’s what it’s doing.
For example, scrub oak roots run deep so they’ll recover quickly after fire.
The younger shoots provide different nutrition to various insects, and at different stages in their lives.
And pitch pine seeds can germinate best on ground recently burned.
Last year the Nature Conservancy attempted a burn, but weather dampened the ground too much.
Jeff Lougee says this one is a success.
1093 1:14 It’s doing what we want it to do, it’s really staying there, it’s consuming the fuels, it’s top killing the scrub oak, which is going to sprout back, and you’re going to get a nice vigorous response from the forest.
The Nature Conservancy says this is only the beginning.
They preserve more than 2,000 acres of the Ossipee Pine Barrens.
At some point in the future, all of it will need fire to survive.
For NHPR News, I’m Amy Quinton.
