massive fire on Vineyard
 

sittin in truck at water in Westport and there is a massive smoke plume lookin through quick's hole. Looks like one hell of a barbeque.
any info?

the local surfcasters are burning a large statue of BIGFISH in retaliation for his spot burning post :rotf2:

I told ya....the Vineyard is HOT!!!:jump1:

Went toggin again this AM (it was pretty good!) an came back thru Quicks...like a mill pond out there.
No fire at 12:30-1:00

Nothing on the MV webcams I could find.

guy I know pulled up. His girlfriend's son lives over there. She called him. He said it was a controlled forest burn.

Makes sense...

right...make it like Scotland

I was worried that it was the Derby headquarter's file cabinet where they kept the list of past champions.

Bazinga!!!!
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What!?!?There burning X-Mass trees already?

Probably trying to kill the bad bugs infesting the pine trees in the state forest.

They do that regularly over there. Normally, it's announced over WMVY so people don't call 911 when they see the smoke.

Today they had some kind of massive piece on construction equipment topple over on Edgartown Rd, blocking traffic in both directions.

I hope they engraved your name in stone so that fire can't wipe away the name of Paul S-The Derby Man

Saw the guys that did the burn this morning on the boat. Personally I am not a fan of controlled burns and don't buy-in on their concept for our region. I think they ruined chappy by burning and believe it aggravates the erosion process we already have.
Anyway, I asked them why they do this and got the standard invasive species and undesired growth story...then I said but it looks like hell for decade after...no response. Hey... I said, you know I think seals are an invasive species, why don't you kill off a few acres of them? :wall:

Could've been residual smoke that was exiting my ears after my last short trip to the island when I fished my tail off for just about enough to make a fishwhich!

Kidding aside, Sandman you make some interesting points. Don't know much about the burns, but they talk about fire being a natural and cyclic event. Unfortunately, the state of the island is anything but natural, as we pull huge amounts of water out of the aquifers and dump nitrogen rich waste water back into the ground. More and more scrub gets cut for development. When you think about the State forest, there's nothing natural about those rows of white pines, space equidistant from one another, all the same height. Planting a mono-species seems like a pretty good way to insure some kind of blight will take hold.

New Haven, CT used to be called the Elm City, because we had these beautiful, towering, statuesque elms lining the city streets. Not any more.

Wow what a digression.... sorry

Lets go fishing while we can

ab

A controlled burn/prescribed fire is actually very good for the forests in this region. The sand plain, which the state forest on MV is located on, has Pitch pine,scrub oak and huckleberry that are all fire adapted species, meaning they need periodic fire for their health and reproduction. It also lessens the wildfire danger by getting rid of overgrown vegetation, which in case of the State Forest on the Vineyard is top priority. There have been many wildfires in past history= mostly in Edgartown and West Tisbury,that exceeded a 1000 acres.The biggest fire, which scorched 8000 in mid 1940s- burning from Deep Bottom into Katama....no houses...no big deal...now, 2010 it would be a completely different story. So there is a definite need for controlled burns....to protect residential areas from wildfires. As far as the forest looking like sh*t after a burn.....I just dont see this and have observed fires where after 3 years the flame scars are almost unnoticeable. DCR Fire Control, the agency that manages fires in the state forest avoid burning under extreme fire danger/conditions but burn when things are somewhat moister and "mellow" from a fire behavior standpoint.
You sure you talked with someone from the burn? These guys could have gave you a straight answer to any of your questions.

Heres a pic of a 2000 acre wildfire on the Cape-Otis/Sandwich area in 1988. Controlled burns are used to prevent such fires and the Feds. run a controlled burn program on Camp Edwards as well.

That was from my drag!! Ripped off 300 yards of 65lb braid in a blink - never saw it....:rotf2: