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2002
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Alaska Regional Office
NPS Fire Management Creates Unique Partnership with NPS Cultural Resources in Alaska
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The uniqueness of Alaska resides in its sub-arctic and arctic ecosystems, expansive geography and cultural history. The Alaska Interagency Wildland Fire Management Plan was born from these unique factors. In the late 1970’s land and fire management professionals realized that not every fire could be put out due to Alaska’s immense size, costs and the fact that in some cases the effort to put out the fire was more harmful to the environment than the fire. Objectives of the interagency wildland fire management plan were to:
- protect human life and specific resources
- allow fire to fulfill its natural ecological role.
Along with these objectives, the wildland fire plan demanded constant communication and long-term partnerships between six agencies. The Alaska Bureau of Land Management – Alaska Fire Service, US Forest Service and State of Alaska Division of Forestry work together as the three “fire suppression” agencies. Personnel from US Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs and the National Park Service are called upon when needed to assist in fire suppression. The National Park Service also sets fire suppression priorities for the suppression agencies, conducts hazard fuel mitigation, prescribed burns, fire prevention and education. In 2001 NPS Eastern Area Fire Management mimicked the interagency ideals of partnerships through effective communication and forged a new partnership with NPS Cultural Resources in order to protect Alaska cultural resources from wildland fire by giving the suppression agencies fire suppression priorities for cultural resources.
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Marsha Henderson, Eastern Area Fire Management Officer oversees Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, and Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. These parks combined include about 20 million acres. In order to set fire suppression priorities for the eastern area parks, specific cultural resources need to be determined for protection within these immense areas. The need for determination ignited a dialogue between fire management and Cultural Resources.
In 2001 the Eastern Area FMO hired
a term archeologist, Stacie McIntosh. Stacie initiated
a process to inventory and evaluate cultural resources
in the eastern area parks. In so doing, she complied
with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation
Act (NHPA). This law requires the determination and
documentation of cultural resources that will be impacted
by wildfire and wildfire suppression activities. Marsha
Henderson also hired a seasonal historic architect to
assist in the complete documentation of each of these
sites. During the 2002 field season, these individuals,
with the help of a subject-to-furlough Eastern Area
Fire Management employee, completed field documentation
for the smallest park unit, Yukon-Charley Rivers National
Preserve, which totals about 2 million acres. Wade Kaiser,
the current fire archeologist, this winter writes the
Determinations of Eligibility for the National Register
for all 46 sites that were documented. The field season
of 2003 will be spent at Wrangell-St. Elias National
Park and Preserve and 2004 at Gates of the Arctic National
Park and Preserve. The project end date is March 15,
2005. |
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During the initial stages of this project, Superintendents of the above parks and the State Historic Preservation Officer signed a programmatic agreement that outlines how cultural resources will be inventoried, evaluated, and how a mitigation of the effects of fire will be accomplished. The Park Superintendents look forward to making fire protection status decisions based on the full information provided by the partnership between Eastern Area Fire Management and Cultural Resources. The end product will consist of park specific maps that illustrate properties to be protected and the level of protection deemed necessary. These maps will be handed over to the appropriate suppression agency.
One focus of the National Fire Plan and the Alaska Interagency Fire Management Plan is effective interagency communication and coordination. In light of this focus, Alaska NPS fire staff reached across divisional and agency boundaries and cultivated working relationships with Cultural Resources, Park Superintendents, the State Historic Preservation Officer and the suppression agencies. The result of this unique process is partnerships, a long-standing product of significant interest to all parties involved and a project as unique as the factors that contribute to wildland fire in Alaska and the cultural resources fire managers hope to save. |
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