Fire, People & Resources

Fire, People and Resources. North Atlantic Fire Learning Trail. Humans have lived in fire-adapted ecosystems since time immemorial. The Indigenous Peoples of this region stewarded these habitats with fire before European colonization and continue to use fire on the landscape., As European settlers arrived, wildfire threatened the developing communities, and attention turned to suppressing fires to protect homes, agriculture, and public infrastructure. The focus on suppressing fires led to the development of unnaturally dense forests and the loss of fire-adapted grassland habitats. As the area's population grows and more people move into the Wildland Urban Interface or WUI, resource managers must balance habitat objectives with protecting human development, including homes, roads, and power lines., Controlled burns are an essential tool for land managers to prevent large, uncontrollable wildfires. By lighting low-intensity fires, managers reduce the build-up of hazardous fuels such as leaves, branches, and logs on the ground. Before ignition, the burn crew monitors weather conditions to ensure a safe and successful burn. Then, during the fire, they monitor how the smoke disperses and adjusts their plan or stop the burn if smoke poses a threat to the public., While there are always hazards when working with fire, the dangers are much less with controlled burns. With uncontrolled wildfires, like Maine's Great Fires of 1947 or more recently the neighboring Branch Brook Wildfire in 2018, the risks to the public are much greater., [photo captions, left to right] , Wildland firefighter trainees participate in a sandbox exercise that considers human development and resources in wildfire or controlled burn situations., Smoke columns during controlled burns should rise up and move away from local area., A controlled burn crew stages on a fire break near a powerline before a controlled burn. The fire break helps ensure the fire remains in the burn unit and not approach the powerline.