Alaska Region, Alaska

2008 - Burned Areas: They Don’t All Look the Same
In order to better understand burn severity and wildland fire’s effects on Alaska’s national parks, the NPS Fire Management Program, in conjunction with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) EROS Data Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, have used remote sensing to map burn severity for all large NPS fires in Alaska since 1999. 

Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico

2009 - Fire Ecology Data Keeps Bandelier Fire Managers on Track
The lighting-ignited San Miguel Fire started in early July 2009. From the beginning, Bandelier National Monument Superintendent Jason Lott and Santa Fe National Forest Supervisor Daniel Jiron agreed to work together to manage the fire for resource benefit as it progressed naturally from the Bandelier Wilderness into the Dome Wilderness on its western perimeter.

Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

2007 - 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.

Fire Management Program Center, Idaho

2006 - Versatility Promotes Multiple Monitoring Applications: NPS Fire Ecology Assessment Tool (FEAT) Supports Other Natural Resource Monitoring Applications
The National Park Service’s Fire Ecology Program developed the Fire Ecology Assessment Tool (FEAT) to support the integration of fire effects monitoring with fire and land management planning objectives. Already in use within the Park Service, the tool also supports applications beyond the fire community.

2005 - Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity: NPS Providing Leadership and Support for Interagency Burn Severity Mapping
Recently the Wildland Fire Leadership Council (WFLC) sdopted a strategy to monitor the effectiveness of the National Fire Plan (NFP) and the Healthy Forests Restoration Act (HFRA). One component of this strategy is to assess the environmental impacts of large wildland fires and identify the trends in burn severity across the United States.

Everglades National Park, Florida

2010 - Exploring and Learning Fire Ecology through Place Based Science Inquiry Learning
In March 2010, Everglades National Park and Miami Dade College School of Education conducted a successful three-part lesson on the role of fire in maintaining a healthy ecosystem within the Pine Rocklands of Everglades National Park.

Golden Spike National Historic Site, Utah

2008 - Research Burns Used in Attempt to Restore Native Grasslands
As of October 2008, Golden Spike National Historic Site (NHS) had completed several, small prescribed fires as part of a joint research project being carried out between the National Park Service (NPS) and Utah State University. The goals of these burns are to determine the best method of restoring historic vegetation patterns and in the process, to reduce the amount of non-native, invasive grasses.

Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

2008 - Symposium Offers Forum Sharing Monitoring, Project Results
More than 60 people from four states braved blizzard conditions to attend the sixth Teton Interagency Fire Effects Symposium February 7, 2008 in Jackson, Wyoming.

Fifth Grade Students Conduct Fire Effects Research for Park
In September 2008, fifth-graders from all Teton County, Wyoming schools participated in a three-day place-based program with Teton Science Schools (TSS) with an emphasis on fire ecology and fire effects research.

2006 - Teton Interagency Fifth Annual Fire Effects Symposium From Data to Decisions:  Implications of Fire Effects Monitoring
The fifth annual Teton Interacency Fire Effects Symposium was hosted on January 31, 2006 by Grand Teton National Park and Bridger-Teton National Forest. 

2005 - Monitoring Information Shared at Interagency Fire Effects Symposium
For the past three years in northwestern Wyoming, Grand Teton National Park and the Bridger-Teton National Forest have hosted a Fire Effects Symposium to bring together fire effects monitors, researchers, resource managers and fire professionals to talk about current projects and findings. This year’s symposium, held in early February, brought new participants and many informative presentations.

2004 - Interagency Fire Effects Meeting Shares Monitoring Information
The third annual Interagency Fire Effects Meeting was held in Jackson in February, bringing together resource professionals to review data and hold discussions on research and fire effects projects in the area. The diverse audience brought a range of skills and expertise to the meeting.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee

2007 - 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.

Horseshoe Bend National Military Park, Alabama

2007 - 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.

Moores Creek National Battlefield, North Carolina

2006 - Prescribed Fire Used To Rehabilitate Landscape and Control Invasive Species
Moores Creek National Battlefield is rehabilitating a 5-acre wet-pine savanna to bring it closer in appearance to the likely landscape at the time of the 1776 Battle of Moores Creek Bridge.

Natchez Trace Parkway, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee

2006 - Burning for Wildlife
Along the Natchez Trace Parkway, there are several thousand acres of unleased agricultural fields that are becoming invaded with woody species.  In order to maintain an early successional state, the Fire Management Office at the parkway has been reintroducing fire into the agricultural fields. 

2006 - Interagency Collaboration with Ecologic Benefits
The Natchez Trace Parkway, in conjunction with the Tombigbee National Forest, participated in a 3,500 acre burn during March 2006.

Ozark National Scenic Riverways, Missouri

2009 - Nationally-rare Tall Larkspur Discovered in Burn Unit
During summer 2009, the National Park Service Ozark Highlands fire ecology crew discovered the largest population of the nationally-rare tall larkspur (Delphinium exaltatum) in a prescribed fire management unit anywhere.

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, California

2010 - Giant Sequoias Yield Longest Fire History
California's western Sierra Nevada had more frequent fires between 800 AD and 1300 AD than at any time in the past 3,000 years, according to a new study based upon tree-ring research.

2009 - Advantage in Timing: Cedar Bluffs Prescribed Fire
Fire managers in Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks seized an opportunity to complete a prescribed fire in Cedar Grove that provided safer control measures while also achieving key ecological goals.

2009 - Walking Through Giant Forest with an Eye for the Next Generation
It is impossible to walk through the Giant Forest without being awestruck by the beauty of the great giants: General Sherman, McKinley, the Parker Group, and the many others people have come to know and love. Yet another wonder can be seen throughout the parks’ sequoia groves. Whether walking through the East Fork Grove, Redwood Canyon Grove, or in a variety of locations in Giant Forest, with a trained and observant eye, you can spot crops and thickets of sequoia saplings and adolescents.

2007 - 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.

2005 - Using Science to “Cheat” Cheatgrass
If you ask the Roads End Prescribed Fire Burn Boss how the fire burned, she would say it was “light and spotty.” Under some circumstances, this would be a disappointing outcome, but in this case, it was exactly what the fire managers at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks wanted.

Shenandoah National Park, Virginia

2007 - 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.

Southeast Region, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Tennesses, Virgin Islands

2010 - WFMI Data Cleanup Improves Planning and Decision Process (FY 10)*
The painstaking detective work of verifying and updating the Southeast Region’s fire occurrence data found in the Wildland Fire Management Information Database (WFMI) is nearly complete. This process involved comparing fire reports, case incident reports, and local GIS data to WFMI data going back to 1970.

Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota

2009 - An Analysis of Prescribed Fire Seasonality and the Role of Fire Ecology in Prescribed Fire Planning (FY 09)
On September 4th and 5th, 2009, fire management staff at Wind Cave National Park completed the 631-acre Headquarters West prescribed fire adjacent to the park’s visitor center.

Wrangell St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska

2009 - Fire, an Infrequent Visitor, Comes to the Copper River Basin
Two fires were recorded in 1915, and now, nearly a century later, the Chakina Fire is clearing out some of the mature vegetation and beginning the cycle of renewal needed for the boreal forest to thrive.

2009 - Chakina Fire Provides Research Opportunity
While the Chakina Fire was burning, fire personnel who study the effects of fire on the landscape, established fire plots in which ecologists monitor vegetation to determine the types of plant species and number of individual plants growing.

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Students Learn Fire Ecology through Place-based Learning
Did the 1988 fires really devastate Yellowstone? What has regenerated? How is the landscape different? These are some questions 100 students from Gardiner and Bozeman, Montana, answered after participating in an intensive three-day fire ecology and management program with Teton Science Schools (TSS), the National Park Service, and the U.S. Forest Service.

Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, Alaska

2007 - 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, Utah

2005 - Non-Native Plant Control Research in Zion Canyon
An innovative fire and resource management project has recently been initiated in Zion National Park. Zion Resource Management and Fire Management, through a partnership with the USGS Western Ecological Research Center and Lake Mead National Recreation Area Exotic Plant Management Team, have been funded by the Interagency Joint Fire Science Program to study ways to reduce non-native plants in Zion Canyon.