Wildfire Mitigation

Maine tends not to be front of mind when we think about wildfire risk. However, future modeling predicts an earlier and more intense fire season in Maine, with fire probability more than doubling. That's because of a number of shifting climate conditions across the Northeast: warmer temperatures, greater variation in precipitation, more lightning, longer periods of high-fire risk, and new insect outbreaks resulting in tree death and forest fuel buildup.

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As a small island community, Chebeague has some unique vulnerabilities that make proactive wildfire mitigation all the more important. Our low-density development means most of our homes are surrounded by forest, and many of us live at the end of narrow dirt roads that pose a challenge for emergency vehicle access. Our forests, full of flammable softwoods, grow in shallow soils, which makes trees more susceptible to being blown down. The resulting dead wood makes great fuel for fire, and on an unbriged island, removal is expensive and logistically complicated. Our firefighting capacity is also constrained by our water infrastructure. With no public water supply, we rely on pumping water from various on-shore sources that, together, reach most but not all of the island.