by Tom Ellis

ALBANY, NY: Neil Gifford, longtime Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission (Commission) Conservation Director, spoke at the May 15, 2024 Save the Pine Bush virtual meeting on the topic of Restoring Pine Bush Ecosystem Health through Management. As always, Neil was a wealth of information on a variety of topics and expressed warm solidarity for Save the Pine Bush and Indigenous peoples.

He said the Commission works to reduce wildfire risks, the annual Lupine Fest was then in progress, and said SPB has been central to Pine Bush preservation and creation of the Commission. Thirty-four hundred acres are now preserved and another 1500 unprotected but designated for protection by the Commission. He identified about a dozen federal and state agencies and other organizations the Commission works with.

Regarding pine barrens in the northeast United States, Neil said each is globally rare and isolated from the others. Pine barrens are stable ecosystems that fill a niche between forest and grasslands, an open woodland atop a grassy shrub. He said all pine barrens are now conservation reliant and we must work and advocate to keep them intact and prevent extinctions. There is no reference pine barrens community to guide with long term planning.

Pine barrens, he said, exist on glacial outwash soils and on Indigenous lands. He and the Commission know Indigenous peoples actively fire-managed pine barrens for more than 6500 years, stabilizing and preserving them. During the Q&A, he said the Commission is at the beginning of trying to restore the Indigenous (Mohican) connection to the local pine barrens. When asked why Native peoples burned the land, he said the answer to that question is worth a lecture of its own, and quickly listed at least ten reasons. Native peoples hoped to improve hunting, make it quieter when walking, reduce uncontrolled wildfires, and grow and harvest medications and foods.

Mr. Gifford encouraged people interested in Native connections to lands to read (1) Forgotten Fires by Omer Stuart, (2) 1491 by Charles Mann, and (3) An Indigenous People’s History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz.

The local pine barrens contain 114 rare wildlife species, and 74 identified by NYS as being in greatest need. Less than 6000 of the former 25,000 acres remain as pine barrens and much of the 6000 is degraded. The commission, he said, is working toward a 5300-plus-acre preserve.

He said the Pine Bush are fire dependent, the earliest Commission-set fires were staff stressful and marginally effective; they did not thin the vegetation or expose soil minerals. The Commission quickly learned that fires alone will not restore ecosystem health, Other Commission techniques are mowing and applying some herbicides. Since 2000, prescribed fires have been followed by seeding.

The Commission has been aggressive in removing black locust trees and restoring those spots. Thin native vegetation forests, blue lupine, and Karner Blue butterflies, now thrive where the black locust once did. Much has been learned from the removal of four-hundred acres of black locust. Fires can now be started during both the growing and dormant seasons; fires can occur when vegetation is wetter, thus making them slower burning and easier to manage. The Commission is nearing its goal to burn ten percent of the preserve annually. “Pyrodiversity is essential to restoring ecosystem health,” Neil said. A regime of frequent forest fires keeps invasive species at bay and burnables at a low amount.

The Commission continuously assesses if it is maintaining environmental health. The Commission is being successful if wildlife populations are increasing. Pitch pine and scrub oaks are desirable trees. There are considerably more acres of true pine barrens now than in 1990. The Commission is still determining the optimum fire frequency regime. Lupines now live on about 800 acres in the preserve which is great for Karner Blue butterflies and other species. He said the Karner Blue butterfly was added to the NYS State list as endangered in 1977.

Pines and oaks are key to a thriving pine barrens, rare plant species are rejuvenating, Lupines are perennials, the lupine growing season has been extended until the first frost, creating greater resilience in the ecosystem and for the Karner Blues. Based on annual sampling of a small portion of the preserve, there are easily 10,000 Karner Blues and probably several times as many. The Karner Blue butterfly recovery is a good signal of ecosystem health.

The Pine Bush has highly diverse populations with more than 250 species of bees and fifty of ants. Birds are doing well in the preserve, there are several hundred pairs of Prairie Warblers and Whippoorwills are now commonly heard at night.

Comparing the local pine barrens to others, Mr. Gifford said the Pine Bush is performing exceptionally well. He said that although the Southern Pine Beetle has moved north into the Long Island pine barrens and destroys pines there within a year, the beetle, which has been in the Pine Bush ten-plus years, has inflicted much less damage locally due to the Commission’s thinning and fire management programs.

The Commission has 7000 names on its contact lists, local television stations frequently report on Commission activities, and educational materials are frequently revised. The Altamont Enterprise ran an editorial a year ago about the Canadian wildfires that blanketed the local region with dense smoke, and commended the Commission for its pine barrens management.

Among the outstanding questions the commission grapples with are (1) what is the ideal fire regime?, (2) climate change impacts, (3) the Southern Pine Beetle, and (4) as plants and animals migrate north, some will move out of and others into the Pine Bush. He said future conservationists may have to create more northerly Karner Blue habitat while keeping them here as long as possible. The Commission will have to plan for the arrival of now-southerly species into the preserve.

Summarizing, he said there has been a huge paradigm shift by the Commission in the last thirty years that includes mechanical and chemical treatments and an awareness that restoration is not the same as maintenance. The Commission has also learned that community engagement is critical for success. He and the Commission believe that if the Commission can successfully manage a small, fragmented pine barrens landscape in Albany County, that others can do it elsewhere.

During the Q&A, Neil said a development is going up on the east side of New Karner Road and an 18-acre black locust stand on the west side has been removed and will be restored to pine barrens. He said conversations have begun for wildlife crossings over and under roads, and wind walls created by moving vehicles create more difficulties for Karner Blue butterflies trying to cross roads than the roads themselves.

Neil said Karner Blues were once in thirteen states but only four today: NH, NY, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Karner Blues are in the Albany Pine Bush, Wilton, Queensbury, and the Saratoga Airport. Karner Blue butterfly habitat will likely increase as the Moreau State Park in Queensbury is expanded by 800 acres.

Neil said the soil atop the oldest section of Albany landfill on Washington Avenue Extension has proven suitable for lupines. Lupines now grow on a 4-acre test plot, birds are living there, and this landfill section is no longer a fragmenting feature of the preserve. Commission staff routinely review development proposals to understand the impacts and inform municipalities and developers. He said the Town of Guilderland, Town of of Colonie and Albany all have comprehensive plans that acknowledge the Commission’s goals and sometimes developers donate large acreages to the preserve in exchange for permits to develop small sections. He said the Commission and Save the Pine Bush take differing approaches to protect the pine barrens.

Contrary to what many think, Neil said “It is not all doom and gloom when it comes to the environment. Much good work is occurring.”