Forest Ranger 2008 Annual Report Highlights
Overview
The Division of Forest Protection (forest rangers) is responsible for protecting 4.5 million acres of state-owned and department-managed lands and easements. Nearly three million acres are in the Adirondack Park alone, but every region of the state has substantial state land resources. Forest rangers have 122 years of law enforcement history protecting public lands and the people who use the state's natural resources.
"Eyes & Ears"
The division's forest rangers continue their historic tradition of being the "eyes and ears" for the department regarding public use of state lands. The direct professional contact rangers make with state land users is an essential service for both residents and visitors to the state. The information rangers provide helps enhance people's enjoyment and safety, while protecting the land resources from which we all benefit. This public service role is a 365-day responsibility for every ranger. Historically, summer hiking/camping and fall hunting seasons were the primary periods of state-land use. However, in recent years, the use of state lands has expanded throughout the entire year, with summer and fall weekends as peak-use periods. Rangers use the Leave No Trace Program as a means of promoting and inspiring responsible outdoor recreation on public lands through education, research and partnerships. Rangers issued 2,204 camping permits to groups of 10 or more or to any group staying at one site for more than three nights. Throughout the year, rangers inspected or patrolled the department's 60 public campgrounds 2,228 times to support campground staff or to check facilities during the off-season. Routine patrols included 82,429 inspections of trailhead access points and inspection of 2,728 miles of non-roadside state boundary lines.
Enforcement
Continuing a trend of several years, the most problematic activity encountered by rangers was the illegal use of all-terrain vehicles (ATV) and snowmobiles on state land. In 2008, forest rangers issued tickets or made arrests for 763 violations involving ATVs. Another 159 violations involved the unauthorized use of traditional motor vehicles on state land. Rangers executed enforcement actions in response to another 866 violations of various regulations designed to protect state land. An increased emphasis on curbing underage alcohol consumption on state lands resulted in rangers making 275 arrests for illegal possession of alcohol by a person under 21 years of age. Ranger patrols have been most crucial on weekends when state-land use is most intense and the majority of violations occur.
Search & Rescue
An important part of protecting the people who use New York's natural resources is wildland search and rescue. The need often arises to find and rescue lost or injured people in wild or remote locations. Throughout 2008, the division fulfilled its traditional responsibility of assisting, rescuing and comforting hundreds of people. Forest rangers have always provided search-and-rescue response in the Adirondack and Catskill parks. During the last four decades, this service has expanded to all wildland areas of the state. In rural areas, local emergency services are insufficient to effectively find a lost hiker or rescue an injured person in a remote area. In urban and suburban areas, local services are available but generally not trained or experienced in wildland search or back-country rescue techniques. New York's forest rangers are nationally known and respected for their search-and-rescue work and are even asked to teach agencies and volunteer groups from other states.
Search & Rescue Statistics
In 2008, forest rangers conducted 149 search missions, 92 rescues and four recoveries. Seventy-eight percent (191) of these incidents occurred on state lands. Most of them were resolved in one or two days, but several searches went on for a week or more, incurring thousands of hours of search time. Although hikers are the group most often reported lost or injured, people suffering from dementia or mental illness are often the most difficult to find. Rescue and recovery missions are frequently complicated by the nature of wildland recreational activity. Ice-climbing rescue requires special training and equipment. White-water boating activities require rangers to prepare for fast-moving water rescue, sometimes in the most remote and inaccessible areas of the state. Snowmobiling accidents require rangers to be prepared to treat potentially serious injuries in cold weather and remote locations. The prevailing motto within the division, "If it was easy, someone else would do it," reflects the nature and complexity of search-and-rescue missions conducted by forest rangers. In 2006, the division added two new airboats to its fleet of three to support flooding, whitewater and ice rescues or recoveries.
Search & Rescue Training
Considerable time and effort goes into preparing for search-and-rescue missions. Rangers train emergency-service agencies and volunteer groups to work with them during incidents. Together, they maintain positive relationships and continually improve the search-and-rescue program. In 2008, rangers presented 33 NYS "Basic Wildland Search" courses to 691 participants. Another 84 presentations, covering wilderness first aid, advanced search-and-rescue training and incident management were given to 4,021 participants in support of local and division response to incidents statewide.
Wildfire Protection
An important part of protecting public lands, as well as privately-owned forest lands, is wildfire management. New York State has 18.4 million acres of public and private forest lands that are susceptible to seasonal wildfires. The division is the state's lead agency for the control and prevention of wildfires. In 2008, forest rangers reported 157 wildfires which burned a total of 3,634 acres. During the last 25 years, rangers responded to an average of 310 wildfires per year burning an average total of 2,850 acres per year. Although 2008 was well below average in the number of fires, one fire alone burned 2,855 acres. On April 17, a fire that would be named Overlooks Fire began in the Minnewaska State Park in the Town of Rochester, Ulster County. Extremely dry conditions combined with highly flammable woodlands on this mountaintop park prevented the fire from being readily contained. For four days, rangers and hundreds of volunteer firefighters, state park rangers and law enforcement officers worked at safeguarding the communities of Kerhonkson and Cragsmoor (Town of Wawarsing) by using aggressive firefighting tactics, road closures and some evacuations. By the end of the fire, $223,000 was spent to support the multi-agency effort, but no homes were lost, and only one firefighter was seriously injured.
Wildfire History
Although the Overlooks Fire was a major wildland fire, New York's history proves that very large and destructive wildfires can and do occur. In 1908, the Forest, Fish and Game Commission reported 605 fires had burned a total of 396,298 acres of forest land across New York. The most damaging fire that year was the 30,000-acre fire that completely destroyed the Village of West Long Lake (now known as Sabattis) in northern Hamilton County. The extreme dry and windy weather of September 27, 1908 caused this fire--which began 18 days earlier--to escape initial control and burn eight miles north to Cranberry Lake in St. Lawrence County. All the buildings in West Long Lake, along with a lumberyard and 30 railroad cars were destroyed. Seventy residents escaped without any loss of human life but the total loss of property was estimated at $130,000 (approximately $2.8 million in 2008 dollars). In contrast, the 2008 Overlooks Fire had the potential to burn a similar amount of acreage and destroy millions in property but was contained by the application of more than 100 years of experience and technology.
Wildfire Training
The division's wildfire management role requires considerably more time than that which is spent extinguishing fires. Similar to the search-and-rescue program, significant time and energy is focused on preventing fires from occurring and preparing for fire suppression. Forest rangers instructed the 12-hour NYS Basic Wildland Fire Suppression Course on 23 occasions, teaching 393 volunteer firefighters the basics of wildfire suppression. On five occasions, rangers taught the 44-hour Basic Federal Wildland Firefighting Course, commonly referred to as S130/190. A total of 78 firefighters, state employees, students and volunteers completed this course, which is considered basic training for professional (non-volunteer) wildland firefighters. Rangers provided an additional 40 training sessions to 873 firefighters, emergency-service personnel and volunteers in advanced firefighting or incident-command management. The division relies heavily on NYS Department of Correctional Services (DOCS) inmate crews for "mop-up" of controlled fires. Rangers gave seven four-hour training sessions to 326 inmates. Through advanced training of corrections officers, this course will be taught by DOCS staff in the future.
Wildfire Prevention
The best way to reduce wildfire occurrence is to prevent fires from starting. Rangers gave 100 prevention presentations to 122,296 people. Many of these events were large gatherings such as the state and county fairs where Smokey Bear appears with a ranger. Smokey continues to be the most recognized symbol of fire prevention in the world. Of the 157 wildfires extinguished by the division in 2008, rangers attributed only five fires to the actions of children. This statistic stands as a tribute to the effectiveness of the 65-year Smokey Bear campaign at preventing wildfires started by children.
Wildfire Prevention Enforcement
Debris burning, unextinguished campfires and arson are the three leading categories of human-caused wildfires in New York State. As a means of preventing debris fires, rangers and their permit-issuing agents issued 11,998 burning permits as required by the NYS Environmental Conservation Law. Rangers inspected 622 of the permitted burns to insure compliance with the terms of the permits. In addition, they issued tickets or made arrests for 112 violations of law related to fire prevention. The most frequent violation was burning without a permit in towns within the Adirondack and Catskill parks. Department burning permits are not required in other areas of the state. For the sixth year, seasonally-employed assistant forest rangers (AFR) were required to discuss campfire safety with campers during their patrols in 2008. This increased focus on preventing wildfires through campfire awareness contributed to a continued reduction in the occurrence of backcountry wildfires. Only 11 campfire-caused wildfires, burning a total of 12 acres, were extinguished and reported by rangers in 2008.
National Wildfire Response
In 2008, the division mobilized two 20-person firefighting crews to California wildfires as part of its cooperative agreement with the US Forest Service. For each crew, a forest ranger acted as crew boss and three other rangers served as squad bosses. The other 16 members were forest rangers, other DEC employees and department volunteer firefighters. NYS Crew #2 was sent to the Basin Complex Wildland Fire at the Los Padres National Forest, and Crew #3 was sent to the Bear Wallow Complex and Panther Fire at Klamath National Forest. In June, Crew #1 was mobilized to a fire in the White Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire but was cancelled en route to that incident. This was another busy year for rangers supporting federal wildland firefighting efforts since New York sent its first crews in 1979.
Prescribed Fire
In 2008, forest rangers maintained their working relationship with the department's Division of Lands and Forests and Division of Fish and Wildlife to use prescribed fire as an ecosystem management tool. Throughout the year, rangers conducted 14 prescribed fires on departmental state lands, burning a total of 174 acres. Rangers also assisted federal and county partners and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) with seven prescribed burns on their properties, treating 37 acres in total.
Volunteer Fire Assistance (VFA) Grants
Each year, the division administers the Volunteer Fire Assistance (VFA) Grant Program, using funds provided by the US Forest Service. VFA grants assist rural volunteer fire departments with the purchase of fire-suppression equipment and supplies. In 2008, 401 qualifying fire departments received VFA grants of $1,000 each. Not only does this program place much needed dollars in the hands of rural fire departments, it also furthers the solid working relationship between forest rangers and the volunteer firefighter service.
Department and Community Support
Forest rangers provide several support activities to other programs within the department, other state agencies and local governments throughout New York State. They assisted other agencies with emergency incidents on 463 occasions in 2008. Many were automobile accidents at which a ranger came upon the scene. Others included fugitive searches, fire-scene traffic control, evidence searches, drownings and marijuana-plantation eradication. Because rangers are considered experts in the National Incident Management System Incident Command Systems (NIMS ICS), they often are called upon to teach courses on these topics at police academies, county government centers and local fire departments.
Licensed Guide Program
The division manages the NYS Licensed Guide Program. By the end of 2008, there was a total of 2,066 licensed New York outdoor guides. Of that total, 207 new licenses and 312 license renewals or updates were processed throughout the year. Rangers made 338 guide license checks statewide and made three arrests for guiding without a license. No guides had their licenses revoked for being convicted of committing violations of New York's Environmental Conservation Law in 2008.
Summary
The division's 2008 Annual Report (PDF, 2.96MB) includes summary tables of reportable data on wildfire occurrence, prescribed fire, search-and-rescue missions, arrests or tickets issued, public presentations and general activities. Most summaries are reported at the division's zone level. A zone is identified as the smallest work group under the direct command of a division supervisor. There are 17 division zones in the state, each within a department region. Each zone supervisor has provided a narrative review of activities within their zone as part of the division's annual report. All summaries are substantiated by data reporting at the region, zone or individual ranger level. A fact sheet on 2008 forest ranger accomplishments and statistics accompanies this summary.
