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October 1, 2026

Fires

Tom Van de Water, Vice Chair, Conservation

I confess, I’m a fire nut. I don’t light forest fires, but I love to watch them burn. Fortunately, I work as a fire lookout in Idaho from June to October and see dozens of fires start from lightning each year. Those near timber or homes are put out immediately. Those in Wilderness Areas are sometimes allowed to burn as part of the forest ecology. And during a typical dry fire season in the Northern Rockies, these coniferous forests will burn. Some pine cones need fire to open and reseed. Some birds and insects need charred forests to thrive. And, in Idaho, dead wood doesn’t rot. Burning is needed to release nutrients.

So, what about our Adirondack coniferous forests? Adirondack forests are wetter, and our wood does decompose into soil humus. But as recent smoke from Canadian boreal forests confirms, even supposedly wet forests will burn. Conifers are adapted to burn; our Adirondack boreal forests near peat bogs and on mountain peaks are no exception. Charred layers from hundreds of years ago reveal a long history of fires.

Temperatures are, of course, rising as we continue to burn fossil fuels and rainfall is becoming more unpredictable. Flooding and droughts result. A dry Adirondack summer is not impossible. When that happens, some hot August day, fires will start. Any spark will do. We will be shocked to see stretches of boreal forest burning with houses and camps embedded in them going up in flames. If we learn anything from our Western neighbors, it’s that houses near conifers are vulnerable and that houses themselves are good fuel for fires. High temperatures will also threaten vulnerable people, not just in cities like Phoenix, but in places used to cooler temperatures like the Adirondacks. Caring for each other will be crucial.

Simply protecting ourselves, though, by reducing fire risk near our homes or camps is not enough. As Adirondack Mountain Club members, we need to be leaders in fighting climate change. We can promote efforts to avoid investing in fossil fuels, to drive and fly less, to promote positive change at local and national levels. We need to protect the places and people we love. We need to talk to each other about the elephant in the room.

In the West, increasingly common pyrocumulus clouds rising above large forest fires are creating their own lightning. They are a reminder that fires are changing in size and intensity. Certainly, more frequent controlled burns can minimize risks. This does not mean we need to cut down forests indiscriminately or abandon designated Wilderness. In fact, Wilderness Areas offer a chance to see how ecological changes can play out in the midst of climate change. Can some lightning-caused fires in Adirondack wilderness be allowed to burn within certain parameters? Will we adopt forestry practices to prevent fires like those, brought about by mismanagement of logging slash, that burned thousands of Adirondack acres over 100 years ago?

Vermonter George Perkins Marsh wrote eloquently in Man and Nature (1864) about protecting Adirondack forests. Though he could not have anticipated today’s global climate change, he knew the significance of human impact and that forests protect watersheds. His arguments helped justify establishment of the Adirondack Forest Preserve. Some 70 years later, Bob Marshall, one of the first three 46ers, fought for wilderness in the Adirondacks and the rest of the country. His voice still echoes through Western and Eastern forests. He saw wilderness as essential for human well-being. He would not have been surprised by all we have learned about fossil fuels, carbon dioxide, and climate change. Marshall was an advocate for protecting “the people’s forest” through science and good government.

We will need to follow in the footsteps of conservation giants like Marsh and Marshall to tackle the intertwined problems of fires and climate change today.

Photos by the author, from his lookout tower in Idaho

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