Part I - The Problem

So, here’s the thing about a wetland…for the most part, it needs be wet. There are some wetlands that dry out seasonally, but then they fill up with water again. But here’s the other thing about wetlands…they are usually in between dry lands and coasts. Meaning they are in prime development areas. But you can’t build in a wetland, and even if you could, no one would want to live in a wetland (or morass as it’s called here). So what do people do? They drain wetlands and swamps to build cities. This happens all over the world all the time, and it’s pretty much always a bad idea.

As a bit of background, a large portion of Negril used to be a wetland. The Negril Great Morass still occupies a large chunk of land to the east of Negril, but it’s drying out rapidly. The soil in the Negril Great Morass is peat – decayed plant matter that has formed a spongy, very absorbent and very nutrient rich soil. The soil can literally hold 3 times its weight in water. However, when the peat is dry, it becomes a very flammable. So much so that the Royal Palm Reserve, a part of the Negril Great Morass that my agency manages, was originally developed by the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica for them to complete a feasibility study on harvesting the peat for fuel. When the morass is healthy and functioning well, the soil is so wet that when you walk on it, you feel like you’re walking on a sponge. But because of the way Negril was developed, as well as some other environmental degradation that has happened in and around the morass, it is not healthy and functioning well – it is dry and getting drier.

There are a few reasons for this, but mainly, the drying is a result of the development of Negril in the late 1950’s, early 60’s. The developers decided they wanted to drain the morass to allow for more land to be built on. Their plan to do this was simple – dig out two canals on the north and south side of Negril, and since water naturally takes the easiest route available, it would drain out the canals into the ocean instead of getting filtered slowly and naturally through the peat soil of the morass. Their plan worked wonderfully – so much so that over 50 years later, the canal on the south side of the town is a full, permanent river about 15 feet wide that is constantly flowing. This is causing the morass to continue to dry out at a rapid rate – something that is dangerous for many reasons, one of which the residents and visitors of Negril saw today.

Small fires are a relatively common site in Negril, and around Jamaica in general. People tend to burn their trash (a horrible practice that deserves a post of its own, but I’ll stay on topic for now), and burn their fields to clear them (a lot of people farm in the fertile soil of the morass). Sometimes fires happen as a result of accidents or carelessness, and once in a while that happen as a result of natural causes like lightening. But more important than how they happen is simply that they happen. And sometimes, like this week, they happen in a big way.

I was driving to a nearby town with some friends Sunday night, and we saw a big fire burning in the fields in the morass, and decided it was probably either a sugar cane or ganja field that someone decided to clear by burning, or an accidental fire. Either way, it was definitely man-made. We could see the orange glow of the flame all the way in Negril, at least 10 – 15 miles away. The fire was still burning today, and it burnt all day. It might still be burning for all I know.

What I do know is that it burned a huge section of the morass. All day there were huge clouds of smoke floating over Negril, and there was ash falling from the sky at several different times. It was a little apocalyptic and disturbing to say the least. For a large part of the day, the fire was in a section of the morass that is inaccessible to vehicles, and so the fire department couldn’t get close enough to try and put it out. Eventually it came a little closer to the road, so they were able to get to a part of it.

The really scary part is that even if they do get the visible parts of the fire out, it’s unlikely that they’ll get all of it out. The dried out peat tends to burn and smolder, and unless it is inundated with water, it will burn for months. That’s not an exaggeration – we’ve tracked fires in the morass that have literally burned for over 6 months. So it looks like today was only the start of some major damage to the already threatened morass.

I hate telling stories like this without some sort of hopeful solution at the end. And I’ll have that for all of you, just not today. NEPT, my agency, has been working on a strategic plan to re-wet the morass and restore it to a level of health that will prevent these fires from happening in the future. We’re working with consultants and experts to develop these plans, and we are actually having a meeting about their plans later this week. So please stay tuned for Part II in a few days – I’m looking forward to hearing about what we can do to help the morass, and I’ll be sure to update when I do.

Smoke from the fire billowing across the road - this

was taken from my office parking lot in the center of town.