Your answer probably isn’t brush fires. New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation is at odds with different goals and regulations. One is to restrict mowing that would undermine the environmental structure of shorelines and wetlands. A second imperative is to combat invasive Phragmites australis that grows in wet environs. The third issue, which is panicking homeowners now, is allowing or creating mowed buffer zones to put a safe distance between buildings and wildfires. Read more here.

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