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Extreme drought conditions subsiding in Massachusetts

• By Colin A. Young STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE
   

BOSTON -.Just wait until next week.

Since Aug. 9, 2016 -- exactly six months ago -- at least part of Massachusetts has been 
under an "extreme drought" as classified by the U.S. Drought Monitor. The federal group's 
latest update drops the percentage of the state still in its second-most-dire category to 0.01 
percent -- so little that the bright red indicator does not appear on the Monitor's map.

Thursday's update only considers weather data until Tuesday morning, before much of the 
state got cold rain and snow, and before the nor'easter that's enveloped the state Thursday. 
Next Thursday's update will take all of that precipitation into account.

When the red splotch indicating an extreme drought first popped up on the Drought Monitor's 
map in August, a National Weather Service meteorologist said it was unprecedented. "We 
were talking in the office and we can't remember the Drought Monitor putting anything in 
Massachusetts at a D3," Alan Dunham of the NWS' Hydrologic Program said then, referring 
to the Drought Monitor's category for extreme drought. "It's a rare situation for us."

The Monitor's online data dates back to 2000 and reported no extreme drought in 
Massachusetts until last August. At first, the 3.66 percent of the state under the category 
centered around Andover, Wilmington, North Reading, Tewksbury, Billerica, Concord and 
Lexington.

By late September, the red splotch grew into a sprawling stain across at least parts of every 
mainland county except Berkshire County -- 52.13 percent of the state in total. It receded 
from northeast to southwest, but not before spanning the state's height.

Thursday's update does not herald the end of 
the drought that has dehydrated 
Massachusetts for a year. All of mainland 
Massachusetts is under at least a "moderate 
drought" and about a third of the state is still 
classified as experiencing "severe drought" 
conditions. Martha's Vineyard  is "abnormally 
dry" and only Nantucket is adequately hydrated, 
according to the Monitor.

The state's own Drought Management Task Force met earlier this week and recommended upgrading the state's drought levels in several regions. The task force suggested a drought warning in the Connecticut River Valley and southeast region; a drought watch in the west and central regions; and a drought advisory for the northeast and Cape Cod. The recommendations won't be final under Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Matt Beaton signs off on them. 

Since the new year, the "extreme drought" percentage has plummeted rapidly, down to the smallest measurable amount. The unprecedented extreme drought's six-month stay will last at least one more week.

International Wildfire Prevention and Mitigation Workshop draws attendees from all over the Northeast

The Mystic Hilton, Connecticut:  Some public along with local, state and international wildfire agencies from the northeast and the US Forest Service attended the December 6–8, 2016 Wildfire in the Northeast Workshop.  This first of its kind, ‘HOW TO’ workshop was hosted by the prevention education working teams (PEWT) from the Northeastern (NFFPC) and Mid-Atlantic (MAC) Forest Fire Protection Compacts.  Funding for the event was provided by the USDA Forest Service.

The workshop, designed to teach and to answer how-to queries, did so from a varied and unique venue using active and passive methodology.

When registering, attendees were surveyed for special prevention/ mitigation challenges their own communities/agencies faced.  Ideas for resolvement were addressed in breakout groups during the workshop.

Skilled and experienced local, state and national leaders and wildfire professionals shared tried and true experiences they used to prevent and overcome prevention/mitigation challenges already faced and what they might expect in future.  Past, present and what to expect historical patterns of fire regimes/climatology, reading tree rings, the benefits of partnership between local and state wild land firefighting agencies, the use of Fire Prevention Education teams, what worked and did not work when Firewise techniques were used on wildfires, how to help prevent home ignitions using proven landscaping and construction guidelines, how to bolster youth prevention interest and situational awareness in your community, and how to effectively engage the public in proactive fire management efforts were some of the key issues presented.

On December 7th/day 2, a fitting and especially nice tribute to Pearl Harbor and the start of the Smokey Bear campaign with its ties to World War II was presented.

Almost 20 private and government/organization vendors mingled with workshop goers alike and engaged in the event.  Two vendors conducted live fire demonstrations outdoors using fire safety materials.

Workshop goers walked through hallways, conference and vendor rooms filled with educational messaging ... displays, banners, presentation boards and ideas.

Put wildfire prevention specialists in charge of an event, and you’ve got swag … lots of it. Promotional materials of all sorts purchased and donated from vendors and hosting agencies was in abundance.  All was presented and dispersed in a myriad of ways:  welcome bags, silent auction, raffle prizes, and by attendance and participation.  Take home deliverables such as the Wildfire in the Northeast pocket guidebook and its electronic application given every attendee will serve as an invaluable quick and handy resource for accessing prevention and mitigation information.   

Attending foresters were able to earn Society of American Foresters approved CFE Credits along with some individual state accreditation.  The workshop received media coverage on its opening day and again on day 2 during the live fire demonstrations.   To download presentations and information regarding the Wildfire in the Northeast Workshop, go to:http://www.NortheastWildfire.org/workshop 

Baker-Polito Administration Awards Over $63,000 in Volunteer Fire Assistance Grants

Funding to be Delivered to 38 Rural Communities

more:  News Article, December 13, 2016  http://bit.ly/2hMSlG6 

In support of the Baker-Polito Administration’s commitment to public safety and the preservation of the state’s natural resources, the grants are designed to assist municipalities with smaller populations by aiding community volunteer fire departments in management efforts, supply and equipment purchases, and enhancing their ability to protect forest resources across the Commonwealth.

Towns which received an award are:

Town	Award	Town	Awar​d
Becket	$2,000	Phillipston	$1,960
Berlin	$925.28	Princeton	$2,000
Brimfield	$1,972.21	Rutland	$2,000
Brookfield	$1,975	South Deerfield	$804
Charlemont	$1,967	Southwick	$1,500
Clarksburg	$1,823	South Hadley Fire Dist. #2	$1,393.31
Colrain	$1,500	Sterling	$1,730
Cuttyhunk VFD	$2,000	Sunderland	$201
Dalton	$1,997.50	Templeton	$1,964.25
Granby	$1,750	Tolland	$1,936
Great Barrington	$2,000	Topsfield	$822.80
Heath	$2,000	Truro	$1,895.77
Marion	$2,000	Wales	$1,964
Middlefield	$1,968.02	Warwick	$1,967.50
Monterey	$2,000	Wenham	$622.20
Montgomery	$1,464.70	West Brookfield	$1,928.30
New Ashford	$1,093.92	Winchendon	$2,000
Otis	$1,977.87	Windsor	$1,765.37
Paxton	$2,000	Williamstown	$659

###

Why some places need to burn

The Trustees of Reservations set fire to Wasque, again. 

• by Bill Chaisson January 4, 2017 
• http://www.mvtimes.com/2017/01/04/places-need-burn/
• with some link modification

After a few delays due to higher winds, The Trustees of Reservations burned part of Wasque on Nov. 14. Folks over 50 might remember television commercials that concluded with Smokey Bear pointing at viewers and saying in a deep voice, “Only you can prevent forest fires.” By now Americans are getting used to the idea — Vineyard residents are already used to it — that you have to burn some natural places in order to save them or make them work. 

Though for decades, fire-suppression strategy was the official policy of the U.S. Forest Service, the service now admits this might be what has fueled the intensity and frequency of the sorts of fires now burning up the American West. In the 1960s, ecologists began to realize that the suppression of fire — whether wildfire or those started by humans — was not only leading to a dangerous buildup of tinder in a lot of environments, but was also causing some forest and nonforest habitats to disappear, taking along with them the animal species associated with the flora.

“Future Environments of North America,” edited by F. Fraser Darling and John P. Milton, is a book that you often see kicking around in library book sales, thrift stores, and university libraries. Published in 1966, it is a collection of papers produced for a scientific conference. If you look up “fire” in the index and track down all the references, you can see a scientific community pivoting away from fire suppression. The new perspective found its way into public policy through the 1970s and ’80s.

Chris Kennedy, the superintendent for The Trustees of Reservations’  http://bit.ly/2ihPORf  properties on Martha’s Vineyard, oversees a modern fire-management policy. The Trustees burn their property at Wasque every five years or so. “If we can’t burn it,” he said, “we mow it, but you don’t get the same benefit.”

The benefit of managed fires, according to Mr. Kennedy, is that you reduce all the nutrients that are locked up in the organic molecules that constitute trees, shrubs, and other plants, and you reduce them to carbon and simple molecules, which are returned to the soil.

“If you mow,” said Mr. Kennedy, “you leave a duff layer that must break down. The soils [in a grassland habitat] want to be dry in order to support some of the rare species that grow there. That demands a dry substrate, and duff is not ideal because it holds moisture.” In addition, the complex organics in the duff break down over a much longer period of time than the length                                                                                        of a fire event.

The Trustees are re-enacting a phenomenon — a series of natural events that occurred at irregular intervals, usually as the result of lightning, over millennia. An assemblage of plants developed adaptations to not only cope with fire, but actually to use it in order to complete their life cycles. Fire clears a portion of the landscape, and we are told that “nature abhors a vacuum.” Natural selection acts to preserve mutations that help a population of plants adapt to living in the temporary vacuum created by fire. For example, sequoias developed very thick bark that can withstand frequent low-intensity fires. Jack pines have cones that will only open and release seeds when heated by fire. On pitch pines, some of the cones are also like this. Oaks can grow back from their roots after being burned down in a fire. The list goes on.

The Wampanoag, and many other North American peoples, noticed this natural phenomenon thousands of years ago, according to Mr. Kennedy. They began to burn areas of what is now southeastern New England, including Martha’s Vineyard, in a systematic manner. After this landscape was created, the Wampanoag maintained it to serve their agricultural and game-management needs. Over the millennia, this management practice encouraged the proliferation and dominance of fire-loving species, Mr. Kennedy said.

The early European settlers, he said, adopted the practices of the aboriginal inhabitants to some extent. Island farmers who might have employed this technique in their own fields turned away from those fields as the soil was exhausted and agricultural productivity declined in the late 19th century. At the same time, Islanders built more wooden houses side by side on the streets and lanes of Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, and Tisbury. The environmental status quo that the Wampanoags had maintained for thousands of years was upset by the Europeans in about a century and a half: By the late 19th century, most Vineyarders began suppressing fire, said Mr. Kennedy, in order to preserve their homes.

The Manuel F. Correllus State Forest http://bit.ly/1PXOw7k was established in 1908 in order to save the heath hen http://bit.ly/2iOnyJy, an eastern population of the greater prairie chicken, which has a separate, still-extant population in the Midwest. “The [area of the state forest] was a grassland plain,” Mr. Kennedy said, “but trees had been allowed to grow there. We’ve lost the opportunity to have 3,000 to 4,000 acres of sandy plains.” The disappearance of the grassland habitat was one factor in the extinction of the heath hen in 1932. There is no systematic plan for the whole Island, Mr. Kennedy said, to reverse the transition (called succession in this context) to a mature climax forest, but the state Department of Conservation and Recreation http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/dcr/ is attempting to return some of the State Forest to an open landscape.

Because of its glacial origins, the Island has different soils in different places, giving rise to different floral communities. “Fire behaves differently on different habitats,” Mr. Kennedy said, “in a forest versus a dry, sandy area.” Forests tend to grow where there is more moisture, with maple and beech more common in the mesic (moister) soils of up-Island, and the oaks more common in the more xeric (drier) soils of down-Island. In the driest places, it is difficult for any trees to grow, and the dryness contributes to more frequent burning, encouraging grasslands and scrub species over trees. The effort in the State Forest is to return to a mosaic of different habitats that support more biotic diversity.

The Trustees of Reservations have seven properties on the Island, encompassing about 4,000 acres. “Visitors rarely ask, ‘Why are there no trees here?’” Mr. Kennedy said of people who visit Wasque or the property at Menemsha Hills. “In Menemsha, we’re in the beginning stages of [diversifying the landscape]. We are still cutting down the trees, not burning.” The management, however, calls for beginning a burn cycle about a decade from now. The Trustees’ staff now has about 60 acres cleared, and will be mowing it regularly until the burn program begins.

In contrast, they have been burning at Wasque for 15 years now, since the trees were removed from about 100 acres. “We’ve used both mowing and burning since then,” Mr. Kennedy said. “Some rare species have returned.” He cited the example of the harrier, a large open-country hawk that is a ground-nester.

Management of the open landscapes is complicated on the Island by the abundance of skunks, predators that are fond of eating the eggs and chicks of ground-nesting birds, Mr. Kennedy said. The skunks probably originally lived on the Island, but were extirpated along with their predators, wolves and foxes, after European settlement. They were then reintroduced in the 20th century, but their predators have not been re-established on the Island. “That’s tough on grassland species,” Mr. Kennedy said. “Skunks account for 80 to 85 percent of the predation on piping plovers.” The plovers are a classified as a “threatened” species at both the state and national level.

The odd aspect of fire management is that the managers must choose a stage at which to arrest the development of an ecosystem. In the case of the fire-maintained landscapes of the Island, they are essentially emulating the stage that was created and maintained by the Wampanoags for millennia. In the Western U.S., the management policy is sometimes to allow wildfires to burn, but Martha’s Vineyard is too thickly settled for that approach. The systematic, seasonal burning program of the tribal people works well, when you live near the place you are burning.

State officials say concern over drought remains high

BOSTON GLOBE

By Dylan McGuinness

12/14/2016

 https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/12/14/state-officials-say-concern-over-drought-remains-high/HFbq1dn5kBBiOeo3F72wSO/story.html

*The state’s map of drought conditions.

State officials say they remain extremely concerned about the dry conditions in Massachusetts, and they are renewing calls for residents to conserve water amid the region’s worst drought in decades.

“It is incredibly important that as the Commonwealth transitions from fall to the winter months that we all focus on indoor water conservation methods, now that the outdoor watering season has come to an end,” Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Matthew Beaton said in a statement issued Friday.

Residents should reduce water usage, fix indoor leaks, and conduct water audits, the secretary said.

Beaton declared a drought watch throughout almost the entire state, save for Cape Cod and the Islands. In those regions, Beaton declared a less severe drought advisory. The declarations were unchanged from November.

“Although many areas of the state experienced some precipitation in November, large portions of the state continue to experience a water deficit,” the office of Energy and Environmental Affairs said in a statement.

Greater Boston received 2.7 inches of precipitation in November, more than an inch below average for that time of the year, according to the National Weather Service.

A drought watch indicates areas that have endured more than six consecutive months with below-normal levels of precipitation, groundwater, stream flow, and large reservoirs.

The designation sets off more concerted government responses, like water restrictions and “more intensified monitoring and coordination” between government agencies, officials said.

A drought advisory indicates conditions that warrant closer tracking, officials said.

Beaton made the declaration based on a recommendation of the Drought Management Task Force, a group of federal, state, and local officials that has been meeting monthly since July to monitor conditions.

The officials on the task force said reservoir levels are recovering during a natural recharge period, but most remain below normal ranges.

The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, which manages water for the city of Boston and 50 other municipalities in central and eastern Massachusetts, said levels in the Quabbin Reservoir dipped below normal in November, but not so much as to necessitate mandatory restrictions.

The task force will meet again in January to monitor conditions.

Unattended Campfires: 

Costly, Time Consuming and Dangerous

Scenario

Town of 

Bourne:             remote wooded area

Site condition: little rainfall this summer ... drought monitor levels high ... ground 

                            fuels (burnable debris - twigs, branches, grass, dropped leaves and 

                            needles) are DRY

                           ground - little moisture content, DRY

Situation:         illegal campfire ... LEFT UNATTENDED

Progression:    MassDCR' s Forest Fire Control's Bourne Fire Tower:  fire tower 

                         observer spots white smoke; notifies the town that they have 

                           a wildfire off the Heather Hill Road

                          1/4 acre; quick and early detection by the fire tower observer kept

                          this fire small; if left undetected, present weather and site conditions

                          would have resulted in a larger, more deep seated fire requiring

                          higher suppression hours

CONSIDER:   

                         1. firefighter safety and health issues - difficult access to fire; terrain; 

                             heat; weather conditions; fire/smoke emissions; arduous work 

                             conditions; tools

                         2. responding Bourne units/firefighters not available for other possible 

                              structure fires, other human related life endangering situations

                         3. manhours and hourly rate

                                   - 10 local firefighters

                                   - 4 state firefighters

                                   - at least 2 other  personnel - dispatch, tower 

                                   - 4 local and state suppression vehicles 

                                   - 3 hours to suppress fire plus next day ensuing fire size up 

                                     (and this, a small fire caught early)

Drought Effects Emerging as Experts Urge Reassessment

STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE

By Colin Young

08/11/16

Department of Conservation and Recreation Commissioner Leo Roy said he supports expanding drought assessment from a watch to warning level for central and northeastern Massachusetts at Thursday's meeting of the Drought Management Task Force. [ Photos| Video: Antonio Caban/SHNS]

BOSTON, AUG. 11, 2016.....Farmers are worried about their crops, firefighters are battling wild fires burning 8 inches underground, some streams have been reduced to a trickle and homeowners have watched their lawns dry to a pale brown color.

Environmental science experts on Thursday agreed: much of Massachusetts is in the midst of a serious drought and its impact could be felt long after the hot weather gives way to autumn.

The Drought Management Task Force, after hearing from officials from various state and federal organizations, recommended Thursday that the state broaden the scope of its drought declaration to include all of Massachusetts and consider elevating the central and northeast parts of the state to a drought warning status, one step shy of a drought emergency.

Also Thursday, the United States Drought Monitor declared portions of Middlesex and Essex counties -- a total of 3.66 percent of the state -- to be under an "extreme drought," which a National Weather Service meteorologist said is unprecedented.   

"We were talking in the office and we can't remember the Drought Monitor putting anything in Massachusetts at a D3," said Alan Dunham of the NWS' Hydrologic Program, referring to the Drought Monitor's category for extreme drought. "It's a rare situation for us."

Towns deemed by the Drought Monitor to be under an "extreme drought" include Andover, North Andover, Wilmington, North Reading, Tewksbury, Billerica, Concord, Lexington and Burlington.

According to the Drought Monitor, all of Massachusetts is "abnormally dry" or worse except for Nantucket. Thursday's update puts 91.78 percent of the state under at least a "moderate drought" with 61.7 percent of the state under a "severe drought."

On Wednesday, firefighters combated a 27-acre fire in Salem -- the largest of the 1,330 wildland fires in the state this year, Department of Conservation and Recreation Chief Fire Warden David Celino said.

"That's fairly unheard of for us. Most of our fires have been small, two to five acres," Celino said. "Having a 27-acre fire in Salem tells us things are starting to increase in terms of how fire behavior is affected by the drought."

And since Sunday a 1.5-acre fire has been burning -- mostly six to eight inches underground -- in the Blue Hills Reservation south of Boston, Celino said. Because groundwater levels are so low fires can more easily work their way underground, making them difficult and more dangerous to extinguish, he said.

By almost every measurement used to assess a drought -- streamflow, groundwater, precipitation, reservoir levels, crop moisture and more -- the state is below normal.

"Right now what we're seeing is a dry condition across much of the state," Jonathan Yeo from DCR's Office of Water Resources said. "In July we did have lower than normal rainfall again across much of the state."

Under an official drought declaration since July 1, the Massachusetts Drought Management Task Force on Thursday recommended that the western part of the state and Cape Cod and the Islands be moved from the "normal" category and be placed under a drought advisory. The group also suggested that the southeast region and the Connecticut River Valley be elevated from an advisory to a drought watch.

The group debated how to handle the central and northeast regions, where the drought has had its most profound impacts. Some members said that because some streams in those areas have already dried up, they should be placed under a drought warning -- the second highest classification.

"One of the reasons we think it's important to address the intensity of the drought now rather than wait until September is that this is the time of year when people really use a lot of water," Julia Blatt, executive director of the Massachusetts Rivers Alliance, said. "And we can in some way assess the severity of the problem so people will use less water, this is the time of year when it can make a difference. If we wait until September, we will have missed an opportunity to conserve a lot of water."

Task force co-chair Vandana Rao, the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs' assistant director of water policy, said she would take the suggestion of moving to a warning "under advisement and talk about it internally."

At least one high-level administration official agreed that the state should move the central and northeast regions to a warning, based in part on forecasts that call for more hot, dry weather.

"I think we heard from several people in the room the importance of trying to save water now so we can keep our resource available moving forward," DCR Commissioner Leo Roy said. "The next six weeks are really critical ... our delay in moving to a higher level may be a lost opportunity in conserving water."

The task force made its recommendations to Energy and Environment Secretary Matthew Beaton, who did not attend the meeting. Beaton is expected to act on the recommendation and possibly change current drought levels for regions of the state by Monday.

If Beaton accepts the recommendations, the state would begin to do more public messaging around water conservation -- including signboards on the sides of highways and some outdoor advertisements -- and some targeted water use restrictions could be implemented.

Watershed groups have been urging the Baker administration to be more vocal about spreading the message of water conservation.

As the drought languishes through the already short growing season, Massachusetts farmers have been hit particularly hard.

The state Department of Agricultural Resources (DAR), working with the University of Massachusetts, last week began circulating to farmers a survey assessing the extent to which Bay State farmers have lost crops due to the drought.

The survey results are necessary, DAR said, "in order to seek a disaster declaration and disaster relief for Massachusetts farmers" from the federal Farm Service Agency.

"Preliminary findings do indicated that a substantial number of farmers have seen crop losses of 30 percent or greater," Trevor Battle, an environmental health inspector for DAR, said, noting that the survey will continue to circulate until Aug. 19.

Cranberry farmers, who account for about 20 percent of the state's agricultural output, are worried that the drought will result in smaller than normal cranberries and a late harvest, Battle said.

The cranberry harvest could be spared, he said, if rainfall becomes more plentiful during August. But meteorologists don't expect the dry weather to give way any time soon.

"What we're looking at ... this weekend through early next week is probably our best chance" for rainfall, Dunham said. "However, with showers and thunderstorm some people will get it and a lot of people won't."

Dunham said Boston is about an inch shy of its average rainfall total for the month of August and Worcester is right at its average amount. The last month to get greater than average precipitation was February, he said.

But the drought is not a result of just six months of dry weather, Dunham said, but rather has been growing bit by bit as precipitation has come in below average over a longer period of time.

"The last 36 months, three years, we've been dealing with below normal precip quite a lot," he said. "We've been fortunate where we have very dry summers but we get a recovery in the fall. But overall this has been building up."

for more ... see DCR's Jonathan Yeo on WGBH

July 7, 2016

UPDATE: Severe drought conditions hit parts of Massachusetts, federal officials say

http://bit.ly/29u09Jj   via Boston Globe

Massachusetts Chief Fire Warden Dave Celino: 

Fireworks caused this wild land fire in the town of Groton

Department of Conservation and Recreation's (DCR) Fire staff have assisted over 25 towns in the last 6 days on some 56 wild land fires that have burned around 47 acres.  Most fires have been contained at a small acreage. However, drought conditions are causing fire to burn as much as 8 inches into the ground and challenging suppression efforts.   Over the last three days 4 structures were lost in the town of Chelmsford, 1 in Townsend, and 1 in Westford from wild land fires. 

Blue Hills:   DCR Fire is currently working a fire on the Blue Hills Reservation, located off Bunker Hill Lane.  The fire is active from yesterday afternoon and is estimated around 1 acre in size.

Wild land Fire activity in the last 6 days