Sandy:

Eastern box turtles are beautiful and interesting animals, and your photographs of them are terrific.

These turtles are threatened by development that either destroys their habitat or fragments it into small parcels. But the species survives in areas such as the Long Island Pine Barrens, where large tracts have been preserved. Fire, which is an important part of pine barrens ecology, can kill Eastern Box Turtles when it is intense. But individuals can survive less intense fires if they have burrowed below the surface.

In 1995, two fires in the Long Island Pine Barrens became intense and widespread due to a large accumulation of dead plant material on the ground that resulted from years of fire suppression. In the Dwarf Pine Plains of Westhampton, many Eastern Box Turtles were killed by the intense flames. However, some survived either because they had burrowed deeply enough to escape the heat, or because they were outside the burn area.


This Eastern Box Turtle died in the Sunrise Fire that burned a portion of the Long Island Pine Barrens in late August and early September, 1995. Photo taken on September 9, 1995.


This Eastern Box Turtle survived the Sunrise Fire and is seen walking through the ashes looking for food, which had already reappeared nearby in the form of ants, other insects, and regrowth of vegetation several weeks after the fire. Photo taken on September 14, 1995.

According to New York Times: From Pines' Ashes, a Different Landscape (Accessed June 29, 2008):

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It was on Aug. 21, 1995, during an especially hot and dry summer, that a fire began in the state conservation area south of Rocky Point. Three days later, a fire started on the grounds of Suffolk County Community College's eastern campus in Riverhead and roared out of control, jumping Sunrise Highway.

Before the flames were declared out on Sept. 10, the fire consumed 1,800 acres of pitch pine-scrub oak-heath woodland and pine-oak forest in Rocky Point and 3,000 acres from Westhampton to Eastport. More than 2,000 volunteer firefighters from all over Long Island and beyond battled the flames, which reached 200 feet high in some places.

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Wildland fires play a very prominent role in the Pine Barrens, considered by Conservancy scientists and others as "fire dependent" natural communities. Many rare or unique species have adapted to and actually depend on periodic fires for long term survival. With the ever-increasing effectiveness of fire control efforts, fires have become less frequent leading to declining forest health and greater risk of uncontrollable wildfires like the Sunrise fires of 1995. The Conservancy is working with partners to implement carefully controlled prescribed burns in the Pine Barrens to restore forest health while reducing the risk of severe wildfires.

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