Fire in the Refuge: Wildland Fire Suppression & Prescribed Fires

Wildland Fire Suppression

St. Marks NWR maintains a well trained and equipped fire management team, which is capable of responding to and suppressing wildfires quickly & safely. The management team comprises of a Fire Management Officer, a Fire Control Officer and five forestry technicians, who are also trained fire fighters.

The staff is augmented by a 4WD, 200 gallon ICS Type VI engine and a 300 gallon slip-on unit. The staff is further assisted by a Type III Caterpillar dozer/ tractor plow with transport and a Type II dozer unit with Lowboy. In the event that additional fire fighters are needed, members of the maintenance, management and visitor use/protection staff are trained in and maintain fire-fighting certification. These collateral fire fighters can be mobilized quickly should the need arise.

The fire crew is trained to mobilize and be on site of a wild fire, which is burning any where in the Refuge, within minutes of the initial call. The St. Marks NWR Fire Management Crew was mobilized during the 1998 Florida wildfires and assisted several state and local agencies in suppressing the fires that were burning within their communities. During that time, several fires broke out within the refuge, itself. Two factors were responsible for the rapid suppression of these fires, the first being the rapid response on the part of the initial attack crews, and the second being the fact that the fires burned in areas which had been previously burned through prescribed burning.

Prescribed Fires in the Refuge

St. Marks NWR uses fire as a vital resource management tool. Prescribed fires on the refuge have been used to improve soils, eliminate non-native plant species, enhance habitat for wildlife and to decrease the force of wildfires.

Approximately 33,000 acres of upland forests within the refuge is burned on a three year cyclic rotational basis, this averages to about 11,000 acres of prescribed burning per year. Since the refuge includes many different habitat types, such as oak and pine uplands, forested swamps, and fresh and salt water marshes, prescribed burning within the refuge requires that the fire management staff plan their fire prescription(s) for a given area with great care.

Not only is there the difference in habitats to factor into a prescription, but also the habitat's propensity for harboring endangered and/or threatened wildlife species . The Fire Management Officer works closely with the Refuge Biological Staff in planning prescribed burns, and establishing future fire goals and safety guidelines.