Township, Park officials disagree on Alligator Hill wildfire potential

Bonnie Gonzales discovers the Alligator Hill lookout sign while hiking through the landscape of downed trees in mid-October.

By Linda Alice Dewey
Sun contributor

“The Park has got to figure out how to address the dead fall hazard,” declared Glen Lake Fire Department chief John Dodson after the October Glen Arbor Emergency Services meeting. The “Park” he refers to is the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (SBDNL). All that dead wood, he says, “is fuel building up. Our fire department does not have the staff to maintain a wildfire the size of Alligator Hill.”

In response to such concerns, SBDNL chief of natural resources Kevin Skerl issued a mid-October press release stating that the Park had brought in fire professionals to assess those risks. They determined that the new downfall was still green and therefore not a present danger, and that the main roads in most cases afford “viable fuel breaks.” SBDNL officials will “monitor” the situation.

Although Dodson agrees with the majority of that statement, he was not mollified. “When the trees become more dead,” he responded, “I’m not that particularly sure that Day Forest Road will afford the same break.”

The release did state that their fire experts were concerned for homes and Park posts adjacent to the hill and advised Park officials to help those particular homeowners clean up their properties and create fuel breaks between the hill and their homes. SBDNL officials are currently seeking funding to do that.

Whether the deadfall becomes a hazard to people and homes at all, explains Skerl, will depend on several conditions, such as how wet the season is, and “how the undergrowth grows. Some of the trees break down rather quickly,” he says. “There are a lot of different potential futures here.”

Dodson concurs that there is no immediate fire danger and may not be even into next summer, depending on conditions, but he is worried about future fire potential beyond that, especially for homes that back up to Alligator Hill from Harbor Highway, M-22 and Forest Haven Road. “I don’t expect all of Alligator Hill to have every [dead] tree cleared out of it,” he clarifies, “but the fire breaks should be made greater.”

Dodson also does not believe that monitoring the situation is enough. “[W]hen you monitor something and decide, ‘We need to do this,’ it’s probably too late … It’s going to require funding, take time … Why do we want to wait to see what the conditions are?” In addition, Dodson says, at some point, things will get dry. “It happens very frequently that burning is not allowed in Leelanau County,” he observes. “So if that’s case — that a hazard exists — then why wouldn’t that too be the case in the national park—that there’s a burning risk?”

“This is not a park that has a high fire frequency,” notes Skerl, “when you look at the 100-150 year cycle.” He characterizes fires that do break out in the area as “low and slow moving, compared to wildfires out west.”

“Fire on the ground isn’t the problem,” Dodson replies. “What about embers flying in the air?” In fact, he says, because hardwoods such as those on the hill do burn slowly, their fires tend to be very hot and long-lasting, which is exactly what makes hardwood ideal for home heating.

“Out in the natural area,” says Skerl, speaking of wide open areas, “the risks for public safety or facilities are lower … If a fire started there, it may burn but it’s not going to burn down buildings.

“If we really were worried that any fire might happen,” Skerl continues, “and go in and take wood out of the landscape, that’s going to have all kinds of impacts on the ecosystem, woody debris, and wildlife habitats disturbed by men and equipment.”

Although Dodson says he agrees with three-quarters of the position outlined by the Park, he takes issue with what is considered to be “open” and what is not. “[If the fire] was in the fields across the street from the Homestead — in the Tucker Lake area — I would say that’s open and … less of a hazard,” he says. “But we’re talking about downtown, the center of our community. It’s not on the outskirts.”

Aside from the fire danger, many view the downed trees as an eyesore. Skerl sees the situation differently. Storm blowdowns, he says, are “natural, if dramatic.” Rather than make things appear as if this had never occurred, he believes people should be able to observe it and ask, ‘What happened here?’ He points out that this is one of the last great natural disturbances around that man has not cleaned up, adding that the park’s general approach to cleanup, he says, is to keep a light touch anyway.

Skerl’s press release reminds us that forests do recover. “Shrubs and saplings will begin to fill in the forest gaps, dead and decaying trees will provide habitat for a host of birds, bats, insects, and other animals while returning nutrients to the soil. The return of mature hardwood forest will take decades, but it will happen.” The National Park Service generally does “not interfere with this natural recovery process through removal of downed woody debris,” he adds, “unless there are overriding concerns from a public safety standpoint, as the recent storm caused in several locations.”

Dodson feels that there should be ‘overriding concerns’ from a safety perspective. “Alligator Hill is in the middle of Glen Arbor,” he again points out, adding that it can take decades for deadfall to rot. Until then, he says, it’s fuel.

Many refer to the forests’ recovery after logging in the late 1800s and believe the hill will recover in the same way. This is different, argues Dodson. “Clear cutting doesn’t leave trees. They haul away tress when they’re clear cut. They use the wood for something, they don’t just cut the trees over and leave them lay.” Point of fact: back when the hill was first logged, lumberjacks burned left over limbs and branches in the charcoal ovens at the base of Alligator Hill near the trailhead.

The release also states, “The National Lakeshore may, however, clear and even re-plant in more managed landscapes such as campgrounds and historic areas.”

That, says Dodson, cannot be a priority.

The chief would like to see fire management through planned “prescribed” burns. “Without managing the dead fall,” he explains, “you build up a fuel. By specifically burning it, [you manage it.] You’re better off managing it than to have it manage itself.” Prescribed burns, he says, “help the ecology by clearing off the ground and putting nutrients back in the soil, expose to sunlight, etc.”

Although Skerl is concerned for the safety of humans and structures, he also considers the wellbeing of the forest. “We don’t necessarily think a fire in the natural area is bad, not in our objectives … We will interfere with the natural processes to protect people and homes … We should, however, only do this when necessary to reduce the risks of a devastating fire that would otherwise harm the forest. We are not in that situation at Alligator Hill, and in fact the blowdown itself actually reduces those concerns in many respects.”

The Park’s Fire Management Plan — a lengthy document that is updated regularly — allows for 1) natural-caused fires to burn and 2) intentional, planned burns to manage vegetation and habitat, including fuel loads. The Park is more concerned over “unnatural” fuel loads that would cause an extremely hot fire which would kill mature trees. “Natural fires under natural fire regimes,” says Skerl, “don’t typically kill mature trees. The blowdown does not now pose this risk.”

Both Dodson and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore strongly encourage people to get the woods around their homes cleaned up so that, if there is a fire, they have a firebreak. When asked why the Park suggests people do that when it is not doing the same, Skerl replied, “The difference is that people have facilities and homes that they’re trying to protect, right?”

Dodson agrees that stacking woodpiles near one’s home is inadvisable. “You might as well have a gas can next to your house … By cleaning it up — I’m not saying your house might not catch on fire — but it gives you a better chance, if only to get out of the house.”

To protect your home from wildfires

Do –
• Limit the amount of flammable vegetation and materials surrounding the building.
• Water remaining vegetation.
• Remove available fuels.
• Limb up trees.
• Mow your lawn.
• Adjust landscaping within 100-200 feet of structures

Don’t –
• Stockpile firewood near structures.
• Drag downed wood and brush to forest edges.
• Dump other yard waste into nearby woods.

Visit www.Nfpa.org/safety-information/for-consumers/emergency-preparedness/natural-disasters/wildfires to download the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Safety Tips located on the right-hand side of the webpage.