It’s nearly impossible to walk around Bar Harbor without being reminded of the fire of 1947. Relics remain scattered in the understory all over town – foundation stones, crumbled chimneys, the odd statue. The vegetation has regrown, but the species mix has been significantly altered.

Destructive wildfires in Maine have been relatively rare over the years compared to drier states in the West and other areas. Now, that may be changing.

While overall a fairly wet state, Maine has seen an increasing number of wildfires in recent years, as droughts intensify, development increases and more and more people venture into the woods – about 92% of all wildfires in Maine are started by humans.

And the wildfire risk is projected to increase significantly in coming years, according to the Maine Forest Service, as temperatures rise, droughts increase and summer soil moisture drops.

One way to reduce this risk is by fighting fire with fire. Humans have been intentionally setting things ablaze for thousands of years, often as a way to clear the undergrowth so it doesn’t unexpectedly go up in flames.

But using fire as a management tool here is complicated because of rules governing landowner liability and insurance, and other factors.

Fire has long been used as an agricultural tool to encourage new growth; it is still used as a way to clear blueberry fields Down East. In New England, however, the custom has mostly fallen by the wayside, as fertilizers and mechanized farming equipment came into the picture and homes, power lines and other infrastructure spread across the landscape.

Recently, some land managers in Maine have been once again turning to fire as a tool to manage their forests, looking to controlled burns to prevent wildfires, manage invasive species and restore habitat.

“These trees need fire to keep them healthy,” said Jon Bailey, who manages preserves for The Nature Conservancy, during a discussion last week on how to use fire to manage forests in Maine.

There may be spring burns to get rid of grasses, or burns during the growing season to kill invasive shrubs that are competing with native species. Landowners may set controlled fires to support public access or reduce the risk of wildfire in densely populated areas.

“We burn at all different times of the year,” explained Aliesha Black, a forest ranger for the The Maine Forest Service. “It all depends on what the goal is for that burn.”

Fire is a huge part of forestry management elsewhere in the country, and a useful one, said Logan Johnson, executive director of Maine TREE, a nonprofit that advocates for the sustainable use of Maine’s forests.

But it’s complicated to use for forestry management in Maine – even with a permit, landowners are liable for any fire that escapes and damages nearby properties or injuries that occur as a result of a burn, said Johnson.

“Each state has a different whole process on what the liabilities are,” said Jon Bailey, of The Nature Conservancy, which operates worldwide. “The southeastern states – Florida and Georgia – you’re more protected in burning, because there’s more of a culture of burning.”

There are only a handful of contractors in the Northeast who have the proper insurance for prescribed burns, said Bailey, and getting coverage is typically prohibitively expensive for private landowners or land trusts. “That is one of the biggest challenges, is finding insurance companies willing to insure them.”

While insurance challenges remain, Johnson said he expects fire to become a bigger part of forestry management in Maine.

“It’s not part of our culture as much, but it’s becoming more so.”

 

This story was originally published by The Maine Monitor, a nonprofit and nonpartisan news organization. To get regular coverage from the Monitor, sign up for a free Monitor newsletter right here.

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