“Ladies and gentleman, the northeast is burning,” declared essayist John Valliant in the New York Times in November of 2024. It’s true. Forest fires have increased this year in southeastern New York State due to droughty conditions. Valliant blames the uptick in forest fires on human-caused climate change from burning fossil fuels. The “change” focuses on increasing global temperatures of 2.7 degrees or so.

This makes some sense since wildfires need 3 things to burn: heat, oxygen, and fuel (i.e. vegetation). Think of these as three legs. Let’s leave oxygen aside since forest fires probably always have enough oxygen to feed them throughout time.

The first leg, heat or warming temperatures, is what Valliant focused on. Fuels were not mentioned. In 2019, I had Pennsylvania State University’s Marc Abrams on our From the Forest radio show program. Abrams studied forest burning going back thousands of years. He found that burning increased even during cold eras.

Increases in forest fires were caused by humans. Native Americans employed fire to meet a variety of forest management goals. According to researchers at this year’s Northeast/Midwest Prescribed Fire Conference in Albany, fire was quite frequently used by Native Americans until roughly the late 17th or early 18th centuries when disease began to greatly reduce their populations.

After a short lull, fire increased dramatically with settlement into the late 19th century. The 20th century was hot, but the acreage and size of its fires pale in comparison to the 19th century. According to Abrams, that’s because the 20th century was the time of Smokey Bear and a culture of fire suppression, and, consequently, forests have changed dramatically.

Culture is Paramount

Abrams believes that “land-use history is the primary factor driving forest change.” And cultural fire changed the forest throughout history. Although weather or climate might be considered abnormal today, our culture surrounding fire is far more abnormal, but not making the news. People simply burned far more before the 20^th century. This is true throughout North America, even the Hudson Valley or Shawangunk Ridge for instance.

The vegetation we have today in many ways serves as evidence of this prior burning. Species like pitch pine, mountain laurel, oak, hickory, and lowbush blueberry indicate a pyrogenic past. These plants tolerate fire and outcompete others when fire is present.

Researchers also use dendrochronology where fire scars can be measured among a tree’s rings, indicating fire frequency, another topic discussed by a guest speaker on From the Forest – Jed Meunier, University of Wisconsin. We also have plenty of fire data by acreage and size in the US that has been mapped, as well as charcoal deposited in lake sediments and bogs.

Climate may act as a modulating factor when it comes to fire, but it is one of the three legs. The buildup of vegetation, the types of plants, and their density hinges more on cultural factors, like forest management or lack thereof.

When it comes to fires, some tree species are more prone to burning than others. In the northeast, our forests are less likely to burn due to abundant rainfall and species composition. The abundance of northern hardwoods like maple, beech, and birch tend to create a damp forest floor less likely to burn in comparison to oak woodlands. This “densification” of northeastern forests has as impact on fire suppression.

Over time, our denser forests are converting to maple, beech, and birch, due to those species’ ability to withstand dense shade and the lack of disturbance from cutting and burning that oak woodlands require. However, given enough drought like we’ve recently experienced, even a maple/beech/birch forest will burn like the one up in the Town of Denning, Ulster County.

From what I have seen from the road, most of the fuels burning were dry leaves and few saplings seemed to torch, but more information is needed from those directly on the ground. Although, leaves burning in the woods certainly pose a hazard to a homeowner, and precautionary measures should be taken given current weather conditions.

Hopefully, I can get someone on our radio show to fill us in. The Jennings Creek Fire in Orange County and New Jersey probably contains more vegetation like the Shawangunk Ridge, or plants more conducive to burning, but I also need more information. In other words, forests containing more oak, hickory, pine, and a shrub layer may require more mitigation in prescribed fire to reduce fuels and meet any forest management goals.

Bringing Back Fire

For most of the northeast, it seems that fire is more important for meeting ecological goals, such as bringing back or preserving plants species that require periodic fire – i.e. pitch pine, blueberry, mountain laurel, sweetfern, oak, etc. However, as forests become extremely thick or dense in areas – especially those that contain “ladder fuels” or a shrub layer that can create more extreme fires – more intense mitigation or management may be warranted.

New Jersey Forester Bob Williams would like to see more fire in his state. He believes that forests can no longer merely burned since some are too dense. Both mechanical (cutting) and prescribed fire will be needed to gradually reduce fuels to meet ecological and safety goals.

CFA is collaborating with other organizations and agencies to try and get a Prescribed Fire Council (PFC) started in NYS to bring “good fire” back to the forest. Most states have a PFC, with our neighbor Pennsylvania recently forming one. Forming a PFC is one step a state can make to bring “good” fire back to field and forest to meet a variety of goals (i.e. ecological, safety, wildlife, forest health, etc.).

It’s also a great way to begin the process of bringing fire back to our culture that has since forgotten it or only knows it as something destructive. With all these fires currently burning in southeastern NYS, this is a great time to be discussing fire, or perhaps to “fight” or mitigate fire with fire. Climate changes or weather obviously matter when it comes to fire; it is a modulating factor. But it should not take up all the oxygen in the room and overshadow 100-plus years of fire suppression and forest mismanagement.