2007

Bandelier National Monument

NPS Fire Management Leadership Board Staff Ride
On May 17, 2007 the National Park Service Fire Management Leadership Board, accompanied by Bandelier National Monument park staff, participated in a guided tour of the Cerro Grande Fire area seven years after it escaped prescription on May 5, 2000.

Bandelier’s Fire Management Program Back On Track
Slow but sure best describes Bandelier National Monument’s prescribed fire program since the 2000 Cerro Grande Fire. Last year 60 acres were treated during the Unit 40 Prescribed Fire. The November 2007 Upper Frijoles (Unit 9) Prescribed Fire treated approximately 1,500 acres – the park’s first large scale burn in the past seven years.

Bryce Canyon National Park

Bryce Canyon Completes East Creek Meadow Prescribed Fire
In June 2007, Bryce Canyon National Park Fire Management personnel completed the East Creek Meadow Prescribed Fire as part of their ongoing fire management program to reintroduce fire as a natural process, following years of exclusion.

Buffalo National River

Reducing Fuels and Rehabilitating Landscapes
During the first and second weeks of March 2007, Buffalo National River (BUFF) fire management staff and their partners successfully completed the largest prescribed fire project in hard leaf litter in the National Park Service. 

Crater Lake National Park

1000-Acre Cornerstone Prescribed Fire Largest in Park’s History
Between September 20th and 26th, 2007, fire crews completed the 1,000 acre Cornerstone prescribed fire in the northeast section of Crater Lake National Park. 

Denali National Park and Preserve

New Denali Wildland Fire Use Reference Guide
Wildland Fire Use practitioners at Denali National Park and Preserve have a new Alaska-specific fire use reference guide.

Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area

Two Prescribed Fire Treatments Completed in April
Two projects on park lands above the Middle Delaware River treated a total of 36 acres with fire. The common goals of Loch Lomand 1 and Snyder 1 were the maintenance of open space and the cultural landscape as well as the removal of exotic plant species.

Fire and Aviation Management

Division Chief And Deputy Chief Named
Mike Wallace was named the chief of the Division of Fire and Aviation Management and Tom Nichols selected as his deputy in March 2007.

NPS Firefighters Return From Australia Assignment
Ten National Park Service firefighters returned home in late February after assisting authorities suppress bush fires in Australia.

Aviation Branch Chief Named
Susie Bates was named the Aviation Branch Chief of the Division of Fire and Aviation Management.

Structural Fire Branch Chief Named
Harold "Hal" Spencer was named the Structural Fire Branch Chief of the Division of Fire and Aviation Management.

Golden Gate National Recreation Area

Fire Education Intern Increases Understanding of Community Fire Hazards
During the summer of 2007, a student from Sonoma State University completed a 9-week internship in fire education through a cooperative agreement with the National Park Service.

Diseased Fire-Prone Trees Removed from Homestead Valley
In September 2007, a 1-acre stand of non-native Monterey pine was removed from Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) to improve fire protection for the Amaranth subdivision and property owned by the Homestead Valley Land Trust.

Grand Teton National Park

Prescribed Fire Treatment Slows Spread of Wildfire
When lightning struck a tree June 24, 2007 in Grand Teton National Park, igniting the Uhl Hill Fire, it could have become a project fire. Instead it burned four acres and ran into the treatment area of the 800-acre Eynon Ridge Prescribed Fire that had been completed just eight months earlier.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Hazardous Fuel Reduction Project Meets Both Fuels and Ecological Objectives
Fire Management staff at Great Smoky Mountains National Park recently implemented a planned hazardous fuel reduction project in the heavily visited Cades Cove area of the park.

Gulf Islands National Seashore

National Park Service Firefighters Mobilized for Wildland Urban Interface Fuels Treatment
In January 2007 , National Park Service firefighters from throughout the Southeast Region converged upon Naval Live Oaks to implement a hazard fuel reduction prescribed burn. The park has extensive fuel loading from hurricanes and tropical storms over the past few years.

Fire in a Post-Hurricane World
Fiscal year 2007 marked another big accomplishment for fire management at Gulf Islands National Seashore in Florida. The Seashore burned approximately 300 acres of pine- and scrub oak-dominated ecosystems of the Naval Live Oak area in Gulf Breeze, Florida. 

Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site

Rural Fire Assistance Helps with Funding for Cooperating Department
Early in 2007, $7,869 of Rural Fire Assistance funds were awarded to the Elverson Fire Company #1/Twin Valley Fire Department.

Horseshoe Bend National Military Park

National Park Service Implements Prescribed Fire in Rare Mountain Long Leaf Pine Ecosystem
In January 2007, National Park Service firefighters met in Alabama at Horseshoe Bend National Military Park to implement a prescribed burn in rare mountain long leaf pine habitat.

Lake Chelan National Recreation Area / North Cascades National Park Service Complex

Defensible Space Makes a Difference - Fuel Reduction Protects Community from Flick Creek Fire
When residents of the Stehekin Landing were evacuated on September 9, 2006, they didn’t know if they would return and have a home. The Flick Creek Fire had been burning since July 26...

Lassen Volcanic National Park

A Healthy Forest Reborn
During the spring and summer of 2007 fire staff completed a thinning project which treated 80 acres in Manzanita Lake Campground, the largest and most visited campground in Lassen Volcanic National Park.

Defensible Boundary Created through Fuels Reduction
The Loomis area fire management project was completed for the primary purpose of reducing hazardous fuel loadings in the park and to help protect park resources and adjacent lands from the threat of wildfires. 

Lava Beds National Monument

Preparations Made for Future Prescribed Fires
During the summer of 2007 when the days were long and hot, Lava Beds National Monument fire management staff was able to prepare a large area of line construction for two future prescribed fire projects.

Mammoth Cave National Park

Fire is a Management Tool
In 2007, Mammoth Cave National Park planned for and accomplished three prescribed fires in the Chaumont, Big Woods and Dennison Ferry areas.

Job Corps Program Success
Park Fire Management Officer, Rich Caldwell is very proud of the park-sponsored firefighter training has changed many young lives.

Midwest Regional Office

Northern Great Plains Area Wins 2007 Midwest Regional Fuels Award
The fire management staff of the Northern Great Plains Area Park Group, located at Wind Cave National Park in Hot Springs, SD, have been named the winner of the 2007 Midwest Regional Fuels Award.

Mojave National Preserve

Law Enforcement Presence Critical for Protecting Resource Following Mojave Desert Wildland Fires
During the 2005 and 2006 fire seasons, more than 85,000 acres burned in Death Valley National Park and Mojave National Preserve. Following the Hackberry Complex at Mojave National Preserve in 2005, park staff was amazed at the number of abandoned road and trail traces that were visible with the loss of vegetation. In addition to improved accessibility, vegetation loss also left critical natural resources exposed and vulnerable to impacts.

Natchez Trace Parkway

Creating the Next Generation of Fire-Smart Kids
Children from across northeast Mississippi were invited to celebrate Fire Prevention Week at Natchez Trace Parkway Headquarters in Tupelo on Friday, October 12th.

National Capital / Northeast Region

Go West, Firefighters, and Help Your Country
Go west, firefighters, and help your country. The Secretaries of Interior and Agriculture did not quite say that, but it’s what they meant.

New River Gorge National River

Firefighters and Native Grasses Benefit from Prescribed Burn
Among the firefighters successfully completing the Sandstone prescribed fire were a burn boss trainee and two engine boss trainees. Afterwards, an information officer trainee learned more about sharing fire stories on the web.

Oregon Caves National Monument

Oregon Caves National Monument Completes Largest Fuel Project in its History
Fire management staff at Oregon Caves completed a hazardous fuels project, thinning, cutting and burning a total of 55 acres in 2007.

Ozark National Scenic Riverways

Rural Fire Assistance - It's Working
In six years at Ozark NSR, $107,823 has been awarded through the RFA program to seven area fire departments that provide initial and extended attack services on wildland fires within the park. In the last five years, those departments have responded to 417 wildland fires on DOI lands.

Pecos National Historical Park

Pecos NHP Conducts First Prescribed Broadcast Burn
On March 29, 2007, Pecos National Historical Park conducted their first prescribed broadcast burn. Two-hundred and one acres of the historic pasture lands west of the Pecos River were treated.

Point Reyes National Seashore

Work of Fire Season Begins with Defensible Space
The first project the fire crew tackles each year at Point Reyes National Seashore is to create defensible space around park structures to reduce the threat wildfire.

Fire Education Intern Increases Understanding of Community Fire Hazards
During the summer of 2007, a student from Sonoma State University completed a 9-week internship in fire education through a cooperative agreement with the National Park Service.

Tree Thinning Reduces Fire Hazard on Palomarin Trail
After 8 weeks of continuous tree cutting and chipping, the potential for wildfire along the Palomarin Trail at Point Reyes National Seashore has been significantly reduced.

Saguaro National Park

National Public Lands Day Volunteers Fight To Save Saguaros
Over three dozen people armed with digging bars and trash bags worked to defend the silent saguaro sentinels of the Tucson Mountain District of Saguaro National Park on National Public Lands Day, Saturday, September 29. 

Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument

Fire in the Ruins
In a nearly unprecedented move, the National Park Service at Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument conducted a prescribed burn at Abó on April 4, 2007.

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks

Reducing Risk and Restoring Fire: 12 Years in Mineral King
In 1995, the Mineral King area of Sequoia National Park was selected as a study site to experiment with reducing the risk of wildfires across an entire landscape. Now, twelve years later in 2007, the parks have finished 22 prescribed fires and at least a half dozen mechanical fuel reduction projects in the Mineral King area for a total of approximately 11,500 acres.

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks Embrace Research to Expand Knowledge of Historic Fires
During summer 2007, a partnership between Sequoia and Kings Canyon NP and the University of Rhode Island's School of Oceanography extracted sediment samples from the bottom of Oriole Lake in Sequoia NP. The fire charred materials, or black carbon that these samples contain will help reserachers to reconstruct the fire history in the region going as far back as 1000 years.

Valley View Prescribed Fire Provides Community Protection
Fire managers from Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks completed a prescribed fire this fall that achieved multiple goals for the parks.

Wallspring Prescribed Fire Meets Multiple Goals
Fire managers completed the 175 acre Wallspring Prescribed Fire this fall in Giant Forest—a popular visitor attraction—in Sequoia National Park.

Shenandoah National Park

Three Burns, Three Resource Objectives
Fire managers successfully completed three prescribed
burns in Shenandoah National Park in spring 2007. Two
were first-time projects, one for vista maintenance and the other to promote oak regeneration; the third was part of a continuing effort to maintain Big Meadow as a meadow.

Tumacácori National Historical Park

Burning Brush Piles Reduces Wildfire Hazards Near Homes
Tumacácori National Historical Park burned approximately 50 piles of dead and down woody material including velvet mesquite, catclaw and whitethorn acacia on October 2, 2007.

Whiskeytown National Recreation Area

Protecting Visitors, Residents and Firefighters
Fire Management at Whiskeytown National Recreation Area successfully completed the Whiskey Creek roadside shaded fuelbreak in winter 2007.

Finding Creative Ways to Remove Hazardous Fuels, Reduce Fire Danger, Protect Visitors, and Provide Electricity
A fuels reduction project involving dead knobcone pine trees resulted in transporting the debris to Wheelabrator, where the fuel was burned safely and efficiently, reducing smoke emissions and providing electricity for all of California.

Whiskeytown and Partners Reach 5,600 Students in Prevention Efforts to Local Schools
For two weeks in October 2007, in conjunction with National Fire Prevention Week, the Shasta County Prevention Officers Association, an interagency group of local, state and national fire agencies, presented fire prevention programs to 25 Shasta County schools. These programs reached over 5,600 children from kindergarten to fourth grade.

Wilson's Creek National Battlefield

Increasing Public Awareness
Park managers and fire program specialists reacted quickly to increased development around the park, two tornadoes, and a catastrophic ice storm by planning and implementing a comprehensive fuels reduction effort.

Yosemite National Park

National Geographic Covers Mariposa Grove Prescribed Fire
National Geographic was in the park in the fall of 2006 gathering footage of Yosemite National Park’s various park management programs as part of their America’s National Parks series. One of the segments of Secret Yosemite covered the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoia Prescribed Fire.

Yosemite Fire Partners for Stewardship Project
Yosemite Fire, Yosemite Resources Management and Science, and the Yosemite Institute (YI) worked together on a stewardship project in the Ahwahnee Meadow to help slow conifer encroachment.

Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve

Eagle School Children and AK NPS Fire Management Track Forest Succession Following Intense Fire Season
In 2004 wildland fires surrounded the small community of Eagle, located south of Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve. In September 2004 fire staff led a group of students from Eagle, Alaska in establishing three fire effects plots. Every September, Eagle students and fire staff revisit the fire effects plots that were established in 2004. They take measurements and photos from the same locations as previous years and complete data sheets.

Zion National Park

Public Allowed To Gather Free Firewood From Fuel Reduction Project
Zion National Park’s Fire Management Program recently introduced an innovative way to reduce some of its excessive wood left over from a fuel reduction project.

Pine Valley Peak Prescribed Fire
In October, 2007, fire management personnel from Zion National Park, with cooperation from interagency partners, began implementation of the Pine Valley Peak Prescribed Fire. 

Annual Success Story Publications
Compilations of success stories for National Fire Plan.