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When low-level flames spread across five acres of forestland in Old Town one June afternoon, University of �������� students Logan Quinn of Braintree, Massachusetts, and Mar Wiltz of Bloomington, Indiana, helped keep them under control while gaining hands-on experience that could shape their future forestry careers.

The two-hour prescribed burn at U��������’s Dwight B. Demeritt University Forest was designed to reduce leaf litter and understory vegetation that can hinder red oak regeneration. Prescribed fire is also increasingly used across the country to reduce wildfire risk by removing accumulated fuels such as dead trees, branches and other forest debris.

Working as volunteer firefighters, Quinn and Wiltz, both pursuing master’s degrees in forest resources, cleared debris around the perimeter before igniting the fire, exposing soil that would stop flames from spreading past the designated burn area. With drip torches in hand, they joined �������� Forest Service firefighters in setting the prescribed fire. During the burn, they doused wayward flames to prevent them from spreading to the rest of the forest.   

Quinn and Wiltz earned their firefighter certifications through their undergraduate studies at U�������� and the University of Vermont, respectively. Their participation was made possible when Rose Abramoff, assistant professor in U��������’s School of Forest Resources, connected them with the �������� Forest Service.

“What was nice about being a part of the holding crew is you get to pop in wherever you’re needed,” said Wiltz, who hopes to become a forester for a government agency. “A lot of state forestry employers are getting firefighters certified and sending them out west to fight fires. Getting this experience now is really wonderful to have moving forward.” 

Beyond providing hands-on firefighting experience, the burn also created a living laboratory for student researchers studying how fire affects Northeastern forests. The project supported research led by master’s student Cameron Chin, who is investigating how fire influences plant communities and soil health in temperate woodlands.

With less experience with wildfires than other parts of the U.S., the Northeast lacks research on how wild and prescribed fires affect its temperate forests, Abramoff said. She added that the region’s forests are generally less adapted to wildfire than woodlands in other parts of the country. 

“We expect the risk of wildfires to increase as the risk of droughts increase,” she said. “Tree pests encroaching on the Northeast — emerald ash borer, hemlock woolly adelgid, browntail moth, white pine weevil — create dead wood that could burn.” 

Preparing for the future of Northeast forestry

Chin is spearheading research into how fire affects the various plant species and soil properties in the temperate forests that dominate the Northeast. 

Days after that burn in the Demeritt Forest, Chin returned to the site with Quinn, Wiltz and Ph.D. student Colby Bosley-Smith. The group collected soil samples, inventoried plant species and analyzed burn severity to better understand how fire influences forest recovery.

As more forestland managers explore prescribed fire to reduce wildfire risk, improve forest resilience and promote ecologically valuable tree species, Chin is dedicating part of her research to understanding the benefits and tradeoffs of this practice in the region. 

More research is needed to determine what plants regenerate after a prescribed burn and whether they alter the chemistry of the soil, particularly its carbon levels, Chin said. 

Trees and other plant life rely on carbon to thrive in many ways. For example, Chin said carbon feeds microorganisms that liberate previously inaccessible nutrients from soil molecules that promote root growth. 

“Fire is one of those disturbances that can have an immediate effect on soil and soil nutrients,” Chin said. “Forestry as an industry has grown more interested in soil carbon.”

Researchers will revisit the plots to monitor forest regeneration over time. Chin is measuring soil carbon dioxide emissions on a weekly basis through the end of November. 

Through research, students apply concepts from statistics, chemistry and physics to real-world forest management challenges, Abramoff said. 

“We teach students how to observe what’s around them in quantifiable ways and make inferences based on that, and that’s useful in every industry,” she said.  

For Quinn, who graduated from U�������� with a bachelor’s degree this spring, helping Chin with her research and serving as a volunteer firefighter during the burn allowed him to expand his professional network and opened an opportunity to conduct his own research on prescribed burns in southern ��������. After earning a master’s degree, Quinn hopes to work in conservation. 

“Having these experiences is really helpful for me in my job pursuits,” he said.  

Contact: Marcus Wolf, 207.581.3721; marcus.wolf@maine.edu