2003

Mammoth Cave National Park
Onyx Meadows Greens After Burn

On April 14, firefighters successfully set and burned 408 acres at Onyx Meadows in the Mammoth Cave National Park. This was the park’s third prescribed fire in two years.

“In accordance with the prescription in our Fire Management Plan, fire was used to enhance the barrens habitat and reduce hazardous fuels,” said Superintendent Ronald Switzer. “We’re very pleased with the result of the fire.”

Kevin Walsh, National Park Service (NPS) southeast regional prescribed fire specialist , served as the fire boss, directing fire professionals from the Cumberland Gap NHP fire use module (FUM), Great Smoky Mountains NP FUM, Big South Fork NRA firefighters, the Pine Knot Job Corps fire crew, and Mammoth Cave staff trained in firefighting.

The fire scarred down to mineral soil in the meadow area and killed many encroaching young cedar trees. Examining the area after the burn, Mammoth Cave Fire Management Officer Rich Caldwell found the grasses to be returning in force and transplanted Eggert’s sunflowers, an endangered species protected from the burn, to be thriving.

“Prescribed fires are a land management treatment used for a specific purpose,” said Caldwell. “At Onyx Meadows we wanted to revive the meadow area, or barrens habitat. Much of it was overgrown with bushes and cedars. We also wanted to clear out the dead and downed trees, or hazardous fuel, which could have caused at bigger wildfire. The prescribed fire in April did the trick and was the most efficient way to do it.”

Caldwell planned for three prescribed fires in the park this year, but relentless winter snows and spring rains, and sharing the fire personnel with other NPS areas in the southeast allowed only one to be completed within the burn window of January-April. He hopes to accomplish the other two in the fall (65 acres at Bruce Hollow Glade, near the headquarters area, and 85 acres at Chaumont in the southeastern corner of the park).

Mammoth Cave National Park
park profile pages