FFLA NH Chapter Report for 2004 to the 2005 Winter Conference

For 2004 the New Hampshire Chapter of the Forest Fire Lookout Association had 20 paid members of which five are "Plus" members. Newsletters are distributed to three individuals who are considered complimentary members: State of New Hampshire Chief of Forest Protection, White Mountain National Forest Archeologist, and a former NH State Forester. One new member joined in 2004.

There was little chapter activity this year following two very active years. State operated fire towers at Hyland Hill and Warner Hill were to have local NHLR dedications during 2004 but the early retirement of Protection Chief Robert Nelson was a major contribution to putting those ceremonies on hold. To date this position has not been filled as the applicant finally selected chose another job. The 2002 FFLA Summer Conference and open house at Fox State Forest brought in one new FFLA member. Local NHLR dedication ceremonies at 11 towers last year resulted in NO new memberships despite discussion of the FFLA and our roll in the NHLR I made to those attending the ceremonies.

Fire activity in New Hampshire was modest in 2004 with a total of 466 fires which burned 149 acres. Although these amounts are higher than 2003 when 320 fires burned 99 acres both years are well below the 10 year average. Of this amount all were human caused except 6 lightning fires which burned one acre. Vermont had fewer fires: 80 but more acreage:242 acres. To the best of my knowledge most of the fire activity was during a few weeks in April and May.
Neither the State nor the Forest Service sent out any fire crews, although some single resources were dispatched. The Forest Service sent a crew to Florida in late September which did FEMA work. Not included in the State fire figures was a 140 acre fire which occurred in November on the White Mountain National Forest and was of suspicious origin.

Quite a bit of maintenance was accomplished at the towers this year. The Regional Forest Rangers organized the work and gathered groups of lookout personnel together to work on a backlog of projects which developed camaraderie and made possible more involved jobs than one or two people could have done.

In late September a crane placed a new prefabricated tower cab on the fire tower on Pack Monadnock Mt in Miller State Park. This work was made possible with funds from the NH Dept of Environmental Services which maintains weather monitoring equipment at each fire tower. Miller Park tower will start operating in the spring of 2005 while Hyland Hill will be maintained in standby status. Operation of Miller Park ceased in June 1981 when State budget reductions resulted in 7 of 22 towers being closed.

The area covered by this tower has had an increasing amount of fire activity and will tie in better with Federal Hill tower and one or two towers in Massachusetts.

As of this writing the towers are funded into June 2005. Funding for the two year biennium starting July 2005 will be determined this winter. The new governor is under pressure to control spending but hopefully the recommendations about the towers made by Governor Benson's "efficiency committee" will be ignored. It is too early at this point to tell whether there will be opposition to funding the towers.

Plans for 2005 for the NH FFLA Chapter are to distribute FFLA brochures at selected White Mountain National Forest offices and Visitor Centers. Permission to do this will be requested early in 2005 so that this plan can be implemented well in advance of the summer season. Should the State towers be funded for the biennium it is likely that Sumner Dole will encourage the State to list Miller Park on the NHLR. Any further dedication ceremonies will likely await the support of the new Chief of Forest Protection.

Chris Haartz NH Chapter Director 12/28/2004