Drought Led NJ Foresters To Cut Prescribed Burns In March; Current Wildfire Now Past 11,000 Acres

New Jersey has a million acres filled with towering pitch pines. It’s springtime and the trees stand straight, bare and bonelike, above a carpet of winter needles that worry state fire service professionals. This week, a swath of the Pine Barrens went up in flames, a stark warning of what might be a treacherous fire season.

About 11,500 acres were affected by a fire that started Tuesday morning in the Greenwood Forest Wildlife Management Area of Ocean County, New Jersey Forest Fire Service said midday Wednesday. The Garden State Parkway was shut down for miles as thick smoke wafted into neighborhoods and thousands of households and businesses were evacuated for hours and had power cuts. Social media updates from fire officials indicated 30 percent of the blaze was contained by Wednesday afternoon. Foresters had warned in March that New Jersey was particularly vulnerable to wildfires this year because of below average rains, near-drought conditions-–and a delay in prescribed burns by authorities that have typically helped to reduce risk.

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New Jersey, the country’s fourth smallest state geographically, offers an example of America’s growing fire risk in the Northeast. The region is experiencing drier and wetter seasons, part of what is a changing and much less predictable cycle of drought and deluge. Evolving climate patterns are testing fire strategy from California to Connecticut as well as communities. Los Angeles suffered devastating fires in January, with billions of dollars in damages, and UCLA researchers, in an extensive survey, found residents reported emotional and financial loss for months after.

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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/23042025/pine-barrens-prescribed-burns-reduced-then-wildfire-hit/