samedi 30 octobre 2021

New fire towers in use in PA for wildfire detection

This isn't exactly breaking news, but it's new to me- and I imagine also something that many forum members here are unaware of yet might still be interested to hear about.

Last May, I undertook a through-hike of the 75 mile loop Quehanna Trail in PA's Moshannon State Forest. I've been sorting and editing my photos from that trip (I took over 1,000 photos across 7+ days of hiking), and I happened to notice that while traversing Chestnut Ridge on Day #2, I took a few photos of a fire tower that the guidebook curiously makes no mention of whatsoever.




Obviously, I was intrigued, so I did some googling, and I came across this article: https://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylv...ect-wildfires/

It turns out that PA DCNR has decided to go "old school" and begin using fire towers for wildfire detection again. As of 2019, there were 16 new fire towers in use across the state. It sounds like they aren't staffed on a daily basis, but rather only on days with high fire risk- typically in the spring and occiasionally in the fall.

The tower I hiked past on Chestnut Ridge is brand new- so new in fact, that I presume it was built after the QT guidebook was published (my copy was published in 2015), hence the lack of any mention of the tower in the guidebook.



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