Prescribed Fire Projects

Wawona Northwest Prescribed Fire - Originally scheduled for May 15, 2012, this project has been postponed until a later date this fall or next spring. 

Updated May 16, 2012
Project Area Map

The 846 acre Wawona Northwest Prescribed Fire, that began on May 15, 2012, has been postponed. Fire officials cancelled the project due to concerns for safety to firefighters and the community, and an unsettled weather pattern. A high pressure ridge over the Sierra Nevada is projected for the weekend and may not have allowed enough time to complete the project.

This project is one of the most difficult prescribed fires units within the park due to very steep terrain, with a 2300' elevation gain. The decision to cancel the project weighed on adequate planning, evaluation of risk, fire ground situational awareness and availability of adequate resources. This decision process is taken on all fires and up to the minute before ignition begins. The intent of the risk analysis is to reduce the subjectivity in evaluating the suitability of completing every prescribed fire project safely.

Specific to the Wawona project, early drying of vegetation, inadequate resources and concerns by fire managers to hold the fire along fire lines led to the uncertainty of successfully mitigating an escape.

The extremely dry winter and early drying of vegetation, points out the importance of property owners to maintain defensible space and clearance of dead and down vegetation within 100 feet of their properties.

The Wawona NW project will be considered for a later date this fall or next spring.

For more information, email the Fire Information and Education Officer, or call 209/375-9574 or 209/372-0480.

 

Yosemite's fire management program has completed the Hodgdon Prescribed Fire in early July. It makes plans to ignite the Wawona Northwest Prescribed Fire later in the summer. Below, read details on each prescribed burn.

Wawona Northwest Prescribed Fire Postponed Due to Unfavorable Weather: Yosemite National Park fire managers have postponed a 845-acre Wawona Northwest prescribed fire planned for late July 26 due to unfavorable weather. A new date is yet to be set.

The primary objective for this prescribed fire will be for the direct protection of the Wawona community. This project will take advantage of the 2007 Jack Fire perimeter and reduce hazardous fuel loading in the Wawona Wildland Urban Interface area. Burning this segment will form a barrier to the community of Wawona from the spread of unwanted wildfire approaching from Turner Ridge to the north and partially from the South Fork Merced River drainage to the northwest. This project ties together multiple and previous historical research, natural and prescribed fires, and mechanical thinning.

More updates will be published in the future. This fire segment is identified in the 2005 Yosemite Fire Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement and is included in the Multi-year Strategic Fuels Management Plan.

 

 

Hodgdon Prescribed Fire Completed: A collaborative prescribed fire project, with the Stanislaus National Forest, began at 7 a.m. July 10. The wilderness-urban interface (WUI) protection objectives were accomplished on the evening of July 11 with 500 acres successfully treated. Fire managers have stopped further ignitions. The primary objective of the project was WUI protection to the community of Hodgdon Meadow, and the Stanislaus National Forest. Extensive collaboration and cooperation was conducted by Yosemite and the Sanislaus to plan and conduct this project. The project had been delayed through the spring due to high fuel moistures and record-breaking snow pack. The remaining firefighters assigned are mopping up and cooling standing snags and stumps. It's possible to view smoke from smoldering vegetation with open flames occasionally. As brush continues to dry out in proximity to smoldering logs, flames may catch and carry as a surface fire in brush or grass. Firefighters continue to patrol the perimeter of the prescribed burn with a fire engine to track smoke sources well within the perimeter of the fire.

 

Yosemite's first 2011 Rx burn: Hodgdon (PW-04) project, incorporating three Yosemite segments called BOF-A, BOF-B, and BOF-C, and a Stanislaus National Forest segment marked F19.

 

Prescribed Burn Background: Prior to the exclusion of fire more than 100 years ago, fire was a natural process that played an integral role in shaping the landscape of Yosemite. Densities of shade tolerant tree species, such as white fir and incense cedar, and forest litter and duff have accumulated to unnatural and unaccepted levels in the absence of fire. Through the application of fire, a more natural vegetation composition can be achieved that would likely support a surface fire, but less likely to support crown fire. The goals and objectives for all prescribed burns conform to the park’s General Management Plan and Vegetation Management Plan.

Contacts: Call the Yosemite's Fire Information and Education Office at 209/372-0480 or 375-9574 and the Prescribed Fire and Fuels Office at 209/375-9576. Or, e-mail the fire information officer.

• Fuels Management: More about a prescription for fire and how Rx burns are set.
• Prescribed Burn History Map: View the park's program over the past four decades.
  
• Smoke Visibility: See smoke maps from wildland and prescribed fires around Yosemite.