Echo Lake Fire of 2023 Part 1 - 2 Years Later (September 2025)
In 2023, it's told that a smoking trucker caused a 1000 acre wildfire starting off RT 23 which burned up the mountain into Newark's watershed property of Echo Lake in West Milford. I got a chance to hike within the burn zone, what i saw made me very happy. (Note all Newark watershed properties require a cheap permit to enter, please plan in advance)
The fire itself had zone of intense burn and minor burn, luckily Echo Lake is developmentally isolated so...no major invasive species incursion, this lead to the opportunity to document how native species respond to fire, something once much more common in our ecosystems.
My immediate notice was response to light, understory zones were absolutely filled with an explosion of shrub growth. Witch Hazel, Maple-leaf Viburnum, and Virginia Sweetspire were the most prolific cover (see witch hazel and Viburnum above). These species have a common response to light but the presence of fire seems to have really accelerated their seed germination
Reviving tree species were somewhat less shocking, hickories of course were stump sprouting, oaks and sassafras were popping up, relics chestnut stump sprouts were doing great (below), nearly all Mountain Laurels had top-death however all were root sprouting prolifically. (Image 1)
Beyond this, predictably, the presence of red maples and beech were completely gone. The understory herbaceous layer was very prolific in most places, being a Hotspot for sedges, ferns, asters and solidago species (its their season to be noticed). Wildlife and berry production were doing very well and canopy loss was only about 50-60% in most places.
We will explore harder hit places in the next post but for now be hopeful that fire can have beneficial effects on montane eastern forest diversity, which can recover very fast to our increasing risk of intense wildfires
