Setting Joint Base Cape Cod on Fire To Prevent Wildfires
HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. - One might ask, “Why on earth would someone set fire to beautiful Joint Base Cape Cod in southeastern Massachusetts on purpose?” Yet, the JBCC Environmental and Readiness Center (E&RC) does this very often.
“So, what we are doing here today is a prescribed fire, what people often refer to as a controlled burn,” said Michael Ciaranca, Deputy Director, Massachusetts National Guard. “Most of the objective today for this fire is to reduce fuel loads and to manage the grasslands for rare species, habitats and concerns. Also, one of the objectives is to lessen the tree load in the grasslands. Grasslands are supposed to be grasslands.”
Joint Base Cape Cod is a fire dependent ecosystem. The prescribed burn unit crew are there to improve the habitat for native grassland, shrubland and pitch pine-oak woodland species including pine barrens and scrub oak barrens; reduce cover of cool season grasses and non-native shrubs and vines; and reduce the buildup of hazardous fuels.
“You’ll get pine needle drop underneath of it. That’s all available fuels,” said Ciaranca. “But then you’ll get the taller grass that gets into three or four feet up the tree. Then you can get other fuels, what they refer to as ladder fuels that can climb up into the tree that’ll cause the fire to travel up into the canopy of the tree. On pitch pine it can also catch the bark on fire into the canopy of the tree because it's full of pitch -- pitch pine.”
According to Ciaranca, the ecosystem will put up with a little smoke during the prescribed fire, but a wildfire and its smoke would be far more hazardous to the community than prescribed burns and controlled burns.
The team also hosts annual fire trainings that surrounding fire companies participate in so that the companies will be able to respond to wildfires within their communities.
“Our system is diverse enough and has diverse enough sets of habitats, so it remains resilient with climate change as the climate warms here in New England, and we see new species of plants and bugs,” said Ciaranca. “It protects against wildfire hazards -- also protects the community -- also protects for again climate resiliency and reducing the fuel load and letting mother nature to become a little more diverse in the systems.”
Story by Laura Berry, Video by David Wilkinson, Massachusetts National Guard Public Affairs