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A significant lightning storm passed over Lassen Volcanic National Park on June 28, 2004. During the next few days 10 different lightning caused fires were detected in the park. These fires were assessed to determine if they would achieve resource management objectives and should be managed to allow fire to play out its role in shaping Lassen Volcanic National Park 's ecosystems. One fire in the park's Suppression Management Unit was suppressed, the remaining fires were all managed as fire use fires.
The majority of these fires received significant rainfall and eventually went out on their own. The Bluff Fire had been smoldering under the forest canopy for several days. By July 6, 2004 only two fires remained active - the Creek Fire and the Bluff Fire.
The Creek Fire eventually went out naturally and the Bluff Fire crept along, smoldering and torching out some small trees. It took two months for the Bluff Fire to reach 100 acres. When it started there were still small patches of snow on the forest floor. As fuels dried out and weather conditions improved, the Bluff Fire grew to 955 acres by September 3, 2004. A Fire Use Management Team was ordered as the fire became too complex for the present staff to manage.
The Northern Rockies II Fire Use Team took over management of the fire on Sept. 3rd and in the following six days, the fire grew from 955 to 3300 acres. During that time there were Red Flag wind conditions and fire danger indicators above the 97% percentile. Even with the extreme fire conditions, fire effects over the entire burn area were excellent. There was a true mosaic of fire intensities, and some areas required the extreme weather to achieve the desired results.
An example of these effects was how well the fire burned through the 1987 Snag Fire. The Snag Fire was a stand replacement event, leaving several hundred acres of dead and down trees. The Bluff Fire spread in this area through spotting and burned approximately 80% of the dead and down.
When the decision was made to manage the fire as a WFU, it was apparent that the fire would need very active management strategies to be successful. During the first week, a checkline was put in place so that the fire would not spread to the south toward the Drakesbad Guest Ranch. During the large acre burn days, the fire was actively herded by burning off fuels and checking the fire spread on trails. With a final perimeter of 15 miles, only a total of 2 miles of hand line was constructed. This hand line was put into place as a check line for holding as well as mitigating smoke into the local communities. The day after the line was in place smoke intrusion into the town of Chester was negligible.
One of the key messages given to the public via radio, television, newspaper articles and personal contacts in and outside the park was the management of the Bluff Wildland Fire Use Fire was an active project involving all the tools we could use on a suppression fire. The information function was taking every opportunity to emphasize that the management of these wildland fire use fires takes a long range commitment by fire staff utilizing all necessary fire fighting resources. The other key messages which were also emphasized were:
- Public and firefighter safety is always first and foremost in everything we do.
- The continued exclusion of fire from these ecosystems will cause undesirable effects, including the potential for unnatural accumulation of fuels, loss of diversity in vegetation and wildlife, and the degradation of wilderness values and ecosystem health.
- Prescribed and or natural fire is necessary to ensure ecosystem health and provide for plant and animal diversity in the park. Active fuels management is necessary to remove hazardous fuels and reduce the threat of unwanted large fires in the park.
- Fire history records indicate that natural fires occurred approximately every 4 to 70 years in Lassen Volcanic National Park depending upon the ecotype. Fires which closely resemble historic fire cycles will help create a healthy forest or ecotype and encourage new robust growth and improve forage and create a diverse habitat for all wildlife.
- Reducing the risk of large unwanted fire through application of prescribed fire and wildland fire use can be much less expensive than suppressing unwanted wildland fire.
- All prescribed fire projects and wildland fire use
fires will utilize techniques to reduce unwanted smoke impacts; however during these projects smoke will settle into valleys and low-lying communities in the evening and morning hours. Park management works closely with local Air Quality Districts to mitigate smoke impacts.
- Our Fire Management Program is consistent with the National Fire Plan, Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy, the Lassen Volcanic General Management Plan, the Resource Management Plan and the Lassen Volcanic National Park Fire Management Plan.
- The National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service are working cooperatively to reduce hazardous fuels in the Wildland Urban Interface according to the National Fire Plan.
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