East Hampton Fire Chief Duane Forrester met recently with several town officials at the Northwest Woods Trail to discuss a plan for fire safety in the area, with the intent being to mitigate the devastation in nearby woods caused by the southern pine beetle infestation.
“The area is kind of like a tinder box, to a degree, and it wouldn’t take much to set off a fire,” the chief said over the phone after the meeting. “We’re doing our best, working with everyone. We’ve reached out to several organizations.”
Near Edwards Hole Road, Chief Forrester met with Councilman Tom Flight, who serves on the town’s emergency preparedness committee, as well as town fire marshals, officials from the Department of Land Management, and Gerry Turza, who serves as the East Hampton Village fire and emergency medical services administrator and the department’s liaison to the Suffolk County Fire, Rescue, and Emergency Services.
“Driving around and looking, the situation is not getting any better,” the chief said. “It’s gotten worse. I think we’re reaching a point where it’s kind of slowing down now. It’s not as bad as it initially was, but you’re also looking at years of deadfall and whatnot.”
With the infestation, Daniel Gilrein, an entomologist with the Cornell Cooperative Extension, works directly with arborists and landscapers to address the impacts the pine beetle can have on residential settings.
In his work, one bit of hope has emerged as a form of “biological control”: the checkered beetle. The species shows up in high volumes where the southern pine beetle, which is around the size of a grain of rice, is commonly found.
The checkered beetle “appears to be playing an important role” in regulating southern pine beetle populations. In pine beetle monitoring traps, the researchers commonly find checkered beetles. The checkered beetle, however, is not in itself stopping the killing of trees completely.
Wildfire prevention efforts require coordination on multiple levels, namely the town, the county, and the state, Chief Forrester said. Beyond that, the chief also must consider the standing fuel on private property, also owing to trees killed by the beetles, “so it’s a very large-scale thing that has to be looked at from every angle.”
At the recent meeting, the main topic of discussion was the department’s ability to access the Northwest Woods preserve, something Amagansett Fire Chief Chris Beckert has been coordinating with the New York State Parks Department on Napeague, which suffered similar devastation.
When analyzing an area for wildfire preparedness, the department looks at access routes for trucks and mutual aid equipment, along with potential water sources in the area.
As for communication with the state and county, the chief said he hopes the department can “make people aware of the situation out here and the intensity of the situation out here.” With the fires in Southern California on people’s minds, the department has gotten frequent calls from community members about its mitigation efforts.
“It’s a rapidly changing situation,” Chief Forrester said. “We went from the woods that we used to have to this new version of the woods with a lot of deadfall and a lot of ground fuel and stuff. Now, that’s going to create more intense fire. It’s also going to hamper our protocol for what we do or how we operate in the woods with these trucks. So, we’ve been working with the town on mitigating these situations so that, God forbid, if something happens, hopefully we’re in a much better place than we’re at now, and we’re able to address some of these issues before we have any problems, any fires, or any potential issues out here.”
As for ground fuel, Chief Forrester spoke about the drought that struck the area late last year. Despite being “discussed in the papers,” the department frequently received reports of outdoor fires in dry conditions, “even with the wealth of knowledge that’s been out.”
The chief urged residents to adhere strictly to the town code and town alerts regarding fire.
Thus far, the East End has been lucky that there haven’t been any major incidents. Moving forward, Mr. Turza plans to meet with Suffolk County legislators and fire marshals to ensure there is a plan.
The town does not independently perform prescribed burns, Patrick Derenze confirmed last week. Locally, those fall largely within the jurisdiction of the New York State Parks Department and the Department of Environmental Conservation.
At the start of burn season last year, in March, the D.E.C. conducted prescribed burns at four locations in Suffolk County at preserved pine forests to the west of East Hampton.
