The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) announced the Arcadia Management Area will undergo a forest health project to create a fuel break.
A release from the DEM said the project would start weather permitting, and a crew of professional foresters would create a shaded fuel break along the fire roads of the 14,000 acre park. The area is mostly wooded, and home to a variety of species, including black bass, white pine, and red spruce.
The DEM said the goal of the project is to reduce risk from wildfires. A shaded fuel break is not a firebreak, but rather a natural or built barrier. It acts as a physical barrier that stops or checks fires before they can reach nearby homes and buildings.
The DEM added that the project would also help maintain cooler, moister conditions under which the vegetation can remain greener longer into the growing season, which helps reduce fire spread.
The project is being paid for with $3 million from the state’s 2022 green bond. The DEM said it recorded 78 wildfires in Rhode Island during the 2023 fire season, with wildfires in West Greenwich and Exeter covering a combined 286 acres.
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) assisted a What’sUpNewp journalist with the reporting included in this story.
