State and local officials are making progress on a regional approach to wildfire risk elevated by the infestation of the woods by the southern pine beetle, but there is more to be done. The approach so far has been a patchwork of overlapping agencies and communities. As we have said before, we believe that the county or state needs to name a wildfire czar to coordinate prevention and response across municipal boundaries.
Warmer winters are suspected in the beetle’s spread into the Northeast. Without killing freezes, more of them survive the colder months to emerge in the spring and continue moving through the forests. At peak, an infestation can expand by as much as 120 feet in a day. It can take as little as two months for a swarm to kill a tree.
New York State has taken steps to remove deadwood and maintain buffers to slow the beetles’ spread. Workers have also cut firebreaks that would give access to woods in the event of fire and help protect houses, but these are few and not yet in all high-stakes locations. The effort has been on state land, for the most part; private property and county or town-owned acreage remain in limbo, not that fire makes any distinction.
Local fire departments have worked on increasing readiness for brushfires, but with multiple jurisdictions and woodlands crossing town and village borders, a greater degree of coordination is called for.