The steep hills, scenic rock bluffs and dozens of springs are part of what makes Eureka Springs a top tourist destination in Arkansas. But that mountainous topography makes the city more vulnerable to wildfires, and some experts have said Eureka Springs may be the most flammable town in Arkansas.
Evidence of climate change has become even more compelling recently with an estimated 200 million Americans at risk for flooding. Another consequence of climate change can be the other extreme – dry weather combined with strong winds that can cause major devastation from wildfires.
Eureka Springs has seen major fires covering large swaths of the town a couple times in its history. And while this has been one of the wettest winters in a long time, there is still potential for devastating fires if it dries up. One known consequence of climate change is extremes in weather conditions, more droughts and oppressive rainfall, more record high temperatures and more record lows.
The danger of wildfire has to do with our terrain and the way we have developed around these slopes and ravines, according to Christopher Fischer, a tree expert working on an Urban and Community Forest grant through the Arkansas Forestry Commission to develop a management plan.
“We primarily use our ridges for the development,” Fischer said. “The city is clogged with a lot of plant vegetation material relative to trees not cared for, or not thinned out. We have had ice storms, wind storms, drought, and early spring freezes that have taken a toll on a broad inventory on plants. All that flammable material loading is putting the city at risk.”
Arkansas Forestry Commission Carroll County Ranger Freddie Wolfinbarger said there are a lot of leaves and branches in the deep hollows around Eureka Springs. In addition to trees downed from the ice storm in 2009 and the 2012 drought, there are a lot of standing dead trees. He recommends people have a 30-ft. perimeter around the house that is non-flammable. Clear leaves from your gutter and underneath decks.
Wolfinbarger said wildfires can be more dangerous in Eureka Springs because of the steep slopes. If you have all this leaf litter at the bottom, with the right weather conditions a fire started at the bottom of the hill could hotfoot it up to the top.
Fischer advocates cutting major fire lines to protect the city. One of the grant components he is working on is an urban forestry management plan to educate and inform people about the value of keeping trees and the forest healthy. Fischer is investigating what Eureka Springs can do to take proactive measures, including prescribed or controlled burns that can remove unwanted vegetation and promote healthy native plant ecosystems.
“Parks Director Justin Huss is considering a burn management plan for the Lake Leatherwood Park,” Fischer said. “He and [Parks commissioner] Steven Foster have been working with Casey Brewster, a herpetologist of University of Arkansas Fayetteville. He has proposed a conservation plan to work in Leatherwood Park to restore the habitat of the collared lizard. In that case, the thrust of that plan involves reducing the cedar thicket encroachment into the glades and the quarry area. They would go in and initially do thinnings to reduce density mechanically. They would remove some of that brush or burn it.”
Inside town, the forests are what Foster refers to as a culled inventory. In early days, the trees desirable for lumber were harvested and the genomes of the earlier trees were removed. Many of the remaining trees are undesirable for timber and less desirable as food sources for wildlife.
The deer over population has an impact on the quality of the forest. “They are essentially eating and reducing the emerging beneficial trees such as red oak, white oak, hickory and some of the other hardwoods,” Fischer said. “What we have ended up with is a lot of elm, box elder, hackberry, and other less desirable trees.”
Eureka Springs has a tree ordinance, but do undesirable trees need to be protected? While some urban areas in the state have bow-hunting to cull the deer population, that was tried once in Eureka Springs several years ago with little effect, in part because of people who opposed the in-town hunt.
“You shake your head,” Fischer said. “You can’t hunt and you can’t cut trees. We have a sort of uncoordinated municipal ordinance scenario that keeps some trees and lets some trees be taken out. The utility groups are vigorously clearing their corridors right now. We don’t have a working relationship with utility companies about how they are extracting that biomass. We have no understanding with those utility groups about how to replant and replace that.”
The urban forest management plan would address deer foraging, invasive plant removal, and emerging land use with new developments. “As Eureka’s economy starts to respond to what appears to be a bit of a boom, I think we need to get a grip on how we will preserve this resource,” Fischer said.
One component of the grant is developing a linear arboretum, which is a database of the geographic location of specimens representing the species inventory of native and non-native trees in Eureka. That inventory is going to be aligned with routes pedestrians and visitors can use to find those trees. The map will be published on the website for Eureka Springs Parks and Recreation.
There are three community landscape concept design scenarios. One is working with the Community Center, another with the Eureka Springs School District, and another on the sidewalk project from Harmon Park to Clear Spring School. In each of those cases, the forestry grant provides mapping, planning assistance and a green infrastructure overview. The three areas will be planted with ten trees each.
Fischer is also involved in a project funded by the Walton Family Foundation regarding the new gravity trails at Lake Leatherwood. The purpose of the grant is to improve habitat around the downhill trails.
“One effect is to talk to SWEPCO about their lines passing through the park,” he said. “We are eager to speak to them about creating some habitat area along those utility corridors. I think they will respond with an interest. Electric utility corridors have created a habitat area for some very sensitive and important prairie type species. Lichens and mosses have emerged.”