Photo By Senior Airman Matt Porter | Firewardens with the New Jersey Forest Fire Service monitor undergrowth during a...... read more read more
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JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. – The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, alongside the New Jersey Forest Fire Service and local officials, showcased a partnership with the Department of Defense through the joint base in Manchester Township, New Jersey, March 13, 2024. The partnership aims to protect properties adjacent to military installations in the Pinelands from the increased risk of wildfire due to a changing local climate.
Officials toured a strategic forest fuel break in Ocean County Township, one of three wildfire resilience projects in the Pinelands funded through the DoD’s Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration Challenge Program. REPI facilitates long-term partnerships to improve resilience to climate change, preserve wildlife habitats and natural resources, and promote sustainable land uses near military installations and ranges. Members of the Forest Fire Service also provided a demonstration of prescribed burning, one of the strategies used to help maintain the effectiveness of fuel breaks.
“Fighting wildfires in places such as the Pinelands has become increasingly challenging because of a changing and warming climate in our state,” said Shawn LaTourette, NJDEP commissioner. “Through REPI, the NJFFS and DoD have formed a strong alliance that is advancing climate science, planning and resilience strategies to protect lives and properties that are increasingly at risk from wildfires due to climate change. The NJDEP thanks the DoD for its foresight and our leaders in Congress for their support of this important work.”
Fuel breaks and firebreaks are critical to ensure the safety of life and property in a wildfire. A fuel break is a man-made change in forest fuel characteristics that affect fire behavior. Fires burning into fuel breaks can be more readily controlled. A firebreak is a constructed clearing used to stop fires that may occur or to provide a control line from which firefighters work.
Maintenance of fuel breaks and firebreaks is achieved through prescribed burning – the practice of setting fires in forests or grasslands under well-defined and strategically planned conditions to achieve land management objectives. The prescribed burns are controlled by perimeters designed to contain the fire and prevent it from spreading.
Since 2020, the DEP’s Forest Fire Service has received nearly $1.7 million from the REPI Challenge Program to support wildfire resilience projects. These projects have created or maintained 33 miles of firebreaks and fuel breaks near two military installations – Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst and the Warren Grove Range – in the heart of the Pinelands, a region especially prone to wildfires due to the dominant tree and plant species, and the porous sandy soil found there.
Homes in the Roosevelt City neighborhood are directly adjacent to the fuel break in some of the state’s most pronounced wildland-urban interface areas, where forested lands and communities intertwine. The most recent significant wildfire in the vicinity of Roosevelt City prior to construction of the fuel break burned 99 acres in May 2020. The Forest Fire Service contained it a day later. There was no damage to any structures.
“Our local communities, including those around Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in my district, are increasingly feeling the dangerous impact of longer and more intense wildfire seasons,” U.S. Representative Andy Kim said. “I am glad these three local wildfire risk reduction projects are receiving such crucial federal grant funding to help protect New Jersey families, their homes and the Pine Barrens that people come to see from all over the world. We must continue to support valuable federal programs and partnerships like the REPI Program that continue to help look after our environment and bolster our resilience to climate change while also protecting our nation’s military readiness.”
The other wildfire resilience projects funded through the REPI Challenge Program include the Warren Grove Firebreak (known as the Allen and Oswego Road Fire Mitigation and Habitat Restoration Project) in Bass River State Forest and the Greenwood Triangle Forest Fuels Maintenance Project, which is in Brendan T. Byrne State Forest and Greenwood Forest Wildlife Management Area.
Additional funding to complete the projects was provided by DEP, the USDA Forest Service in State Fire Assistance, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Ocean County.
“It is our privilege as service members to support the local communities who help make Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst’s ‘Win as One’ mission possible each and every day,” said U.S. Navy Capt. James Howell, JB MDL deputy commander and Naval Support Activity commander. “The REPI Challenge Project is a critical step to ensuring joint base operationality during times of increased wildfire risk, while also safeguarding those whom we protect and serve from the same threat. We applaud the New Jersey Forest Fire Service and the NJ Department of Environmental Protection for coordinating with the Department of Defense to better protect thousands of residents in Manchester Township and empower us as stewards over these natural habitats.”
While REPI funding has assisted with the creation of fuel breaks and firebreaks, the Murphy Administration supplemented the Forest Fire Service’s FY24 budget with $3 million to enhance protection of lives and property through investments in new equipment and staff following the most active year in New Jersey for major wildfires in more than 20 years.
In 2023, the DEP’s Forest Fire Service responded to 1,193 wildfires, which burned 18,043 acres across the Garden State. Fourteen of the fires were considered major wildfires, burning in excess of 100 acres.
“The importance of the partnership among federal, state and local governments to accomplish these resilience projects cannot be understated,” said Greg McLaughlin, Administrator for Forests and Natural Lands. “Not only will these projects provide protection to homes and military installations, they will also provide a safe place for firefighters to work in the event of a wildfire.”
To learn more about wildfires in New Jersey and steps to protect property, visit www.njwildfire.org and follow the Forest Fire Service on X @njdepforestfire and on Instagram @newjerseyforestfire.
| Date Taken: | 03.15.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 03.18.2024 16:16 |
| Story ID: | 466470 |
| Location: | MANCHESTER TOWNSHIP, NJ, US |
| Web Views: | 116 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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