As part of a national program to evaluate the risk of wildfire and develop strategies to mitigate these risks in the “wildland-urban interface,” defined as “where the homes meet the woods,” the Maine State Forest Service Forest Protection Division and Island Institute Fellows are partnering on a two-year project to assess year-round islands.
We often associate wildfires with Western states, but coastal Maine is not immune to them. The Bar Harbor Fire of 1947 burned 18,560 acres and destroyed 170 year-round and 67 summer homes. With over 90 percent of the state forested and increasing numbers of people moving into the more remote and forested areas, Maine is at risk of conflagration.
“Where you have people, you have fires. Most fires in the state are human caused,” says Leslie Wiles of the state forest service.
Compounding these issues is the generally poor health of island and coastal spruce stands. With the human populations of island communities declined in the early 20th century, many cleared lands began reverting to forests of rapidly growing white spruce. Unmanaged growth of these forests has led to trees that are, according to the forest service, “large, overmature, tightly spaced, and…on generally poor sites that can not support much additional stand growth.” Droughts, severe windstorms and pest outbreaks have also affected the health of spruce stands.
To evaluate the risk of fire on the islands, the Maine Forest Service enlisted the help of Island Fellows.
“We needed somebody who was integrated into the community and could maintain that daily contact with community members so not only the assessments could be done, but implementation would follow,” says Wiles. “Also, we [the Forest Service] don’t know the players on the island, and the Fellows do, and we wanted to be inclusive of as many people as possible and make sure we are reaching the right people.”
Each Fellow has been paired with a member of the Forest Service, and they will work together with island community members to inventory the community’s infrastructure to fight fires, “high risk areas” for fire, fire occurrence and past fire problems. The Fellow will then evaluate and “score” a random sample of both structural and vegetative sites for their fire risk; answering such questions as the ease of emergency access to the site, the amount and type of combustibles onsite and the location of the nearest water source. The information will be compiled into a report that examines the community’s fire risk and suggests ways in which these may be mitigated.
“We think of mutual aid as being a very large part of fire suppression. The time that it takes for mutual aid to get to islands is very much elongated, and it may not get there at all.”
The Fellow and their Forest Service contact will present these findings to the town in a public meeting and recommend voluntary measures to reduce the wildfire risk. Individuals whose homes have been evaluated can request a copy of their property’s fire assessment in order to determine what specific risks need to be addressed.
The second year of the project involves locating grant funding to implement the report’s recommendations.
It is hoped that this program will help islanders reduce their fire insurance rates.