SCOTIA BARRENS

Residents question controlled burn plans

Mike Joseph

Park Forest Village resident Constance Weaver and Deerfield Drive resident Diana Dunn confronted state officials with worries and tough questions Friday about plans for a controlled burn of Game Commission woodland near their homes.

If the commission’s intention is to control-burn a much larger area of the 6,200-acre State Game Lands 176, Dunn asked, why not begin the process much farther from homes instead of 600 feet from the nearest private property line?

The 95 acres planned for a controlled burn this spring doesn’t have much of the invasive multiflora, wild honeysuckle and multiflora rose — not as much anyway as the rest of the gamelands, game officials said.

“Why go to an area that doesn’t have the stuff that you’re after?” Weaver asked.

Mike Kammerdiener, the commission’s chief forester, said that by burning off the carpet of dead leaves and other fuel that could easily propel a wildfire, there’ll be a 95- acre firebreak in place near the homes in case controlled burns in later years get out of hand.

Kammerdiener pointed to the center of a map of State Game Lands 176, far from the eastern perimeter where Patton and Ferguson township homes are, and said there’s a lot more wildfire fuel in the middle.

“If you lose the fire in here, you’re not going to stop it,” he said.

The exchange was part of the Game Commission’s effort to win support from the public ahead of its planned controlled burn, slated to happen on a day between April 6 to May 8. The effort that showed limited success Friday.

Patton Township supervisors Bryce Boyer

and Walt Wise said they supported the Game Commission’s controlled burn.

“I think it’s a pretty good tool if it’s used right,” said Wise, former fire administrator for the Centre Region Council of Governments. “Burning actually gets rid of a lot of stuff — good forest plans are encouraged by fire.”

Fire is a natural phenomenon, Boyer said.

“Now with modern fire-fighting techniques, we don’t let them burn,” he added. “So now we’re trying to let nature do what it’s supposed to do.”

Patton Township resident and hunter Don Gordon faulted the Game Commission for not making its intentions known earlier and for not providing more lead time before Friday’s news conference.

“That’s no public meeting,” he said. “I think there’s a much better way to coordinate with the public before they do something like this.”

He also said the new firebreak clearings created may make the gamelands more convenient for recreational hikers and less convenient for hunters.

“All these fire trails that they’re putting back there are going to become gigantic entry points, encouraging all kinds of non-hunting use back there,” he said. “It’s a treasure out there. It’s like 6,500 acres of wilderness. For the hunters, it’s going to bring more people in there at the same time as the hunter. I think the hunters would prefer it remain more remote.”

Another hunter, Mill Hall resident Tom Schrenkel, has hunted State Game Lands 176 for more than 30 years. He said Friday that there aren’t as many deer in it these days, but he thinks the controlled burn is a good idea.

He recalled how he once sat down to lunch there not long ago and within minutes had 40 ticks on his legs.

“Anything that gets rid of those ticks — I’m all for it,” Schrenkel said.

“I can tell you,” said Bill Capouillez, director of the commission’s Bureau of Wildlife Habitat Management, “ticks do not like burns.”

Capouillez said The Nature Conservancy, a national organization, will be in charge of the controlled burn.

The “burn boss” himself, Monroe County resident Patrick McElhenny, said he will give the go or no-go order on the day of the burn. He said he has participated in about 120 controlled burns and has been the burn boss in 50.

“I’m in charge of everything,” he said. “I’m in charge of everyone’s safety.”

Deerfield Drive resident Dunn and Capouillez had a mild-mannered give and take that in some ways summed up the reaction to the Game Commission’s plan.

“I hope you get it right,” Dunn told Capouillez. “We will,” Capouillez said. “I’ve got your card,” Dunn said.

Mike Joseph can be reached at 235-3910.