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Photo Kaimi Rose Lum
Fire technicians take measurements in the dunes over Marconi Beach in preparation for a controlled burn set to start this week. |
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Burn set for Marconi
By Kaimi Rose Lum
BANNER STAFF
WELLFLEET — Where bob-white quail once roamed and broom crowberry grew without inhibition, a forest of scrubby trees has moved in, covering the landscape near Marconi Beach. But this week the National Seashore will embark on an ambitious plan to resurrect the heathland that was there 50 years ago from the ashes of those unwanted pines and oaks.
Using chainsaws and blowtorches, Seashore fire technicians will begin clearing and burning 35 acres of forest between Marconi Beach and the Marconi Site overlook. The brush will be collected into piles before it is set on fire, to avoid a scenario in which whole patches of forest would be engulfed in flames. Then the native vegetation will be allowed to grow back.
“Really what we’re trying to do with this project is get back to a landscape that largely has disappeared on the Cape,” said Sue Moynihan, the Seashore’s chief of interpretation. “We have this idea of what we want to accomplish on the ground and what we would like it to look and feel like for visitors who come out to Marconi.”
Visitors who came to the Outer Cape half a century ago, Seashore officials said, were able to enjoy sweeping, undulating views of the coastal heathlands, unspoiled by the forest of pitch pine and scrub oak that has intruded since. As the forest subsumed the heathland, that ambiance was lost.
So were a number of plants and animals that favored those heathery, open moors. “There are a lot of species that are declining as [the heathlands] decline,” said Carrie Phillips, the Seashore’s chief of natural resources. Phillips said that as the Marconi area is restored the Seashore should see the return of birds like the vesper sparrow and plants like broom crowberry, which is now listed as a threatened species. “There’s going to be more foraging area for northern harrier,” she said, and the habitat for upland game birds like quail will be enhanced as well.
That goes hand in hand with the hunting plan finalized by the Seashore last fall, which calls for phasing out the hunting of imported, non-native pheasants and phasing in the hunt of indigenous birds like quail over the next 15 years.
Consistent with the hunting plan, the burning at Marconi will continue periodically over the same time period. “Over the next 15 years or so, we’re shooting for — within the park entirely, most of it within Marconi but also potentially at High Head — 270 acres, maybe more,” Phillips said. There may also be potential for prescribed fires at Griffin Island in Wellfleet.
Controlled burning is used not just for landscape restoration but to prevent naturally occurring wildfires by reducing the amount of fuel in the forest, such as the lower branches of trees that can serve as “ladders” for fire and the needles and grass under the forest floor that provide kindling for forest fire.
Under its recently updated fire management plan, the Seashore may now burn much more than it was permitted to in previous years. According to Fire Management Officer Dave Crary, up to 500 acres may now be burned in the park per year. The maximum allowed under the former fire management plan was 40 acres.
The definition of “burnable territory” also has been changed under the revised fire management plan to include all areas in the Seashore that are at least 100 meters from roads or trails and 150 meters from buildings. That boosts the total amount of burnable land in the Seashore to 16,000 acres, said Crary — “basically, all vegetated areas.”
Under the old fire plan, only Fort Hill in Eastham and the Paradise Valley area in South Truro were considered burnable territory.
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Mar 20th, 2008