Fuel breaks protect Alaska Native Allotments

Tim Kohler of the Eastern Area NPS staff working on a burn pile.

NPS

Within large tracts of Alaska’s federal lands designated as national parks, preserves, and monuments are allotments of ancestral lands of Alaska Native People. Many of these areas are located within stretches of National Park Service (NPS)-administered lands. NPS fire personnel manage the possibility of fire and the land to allow fire to play its natural role on the landscape without risking park infrastructure or cultural resources. When a wildfire occurs and these sites are vulnerable, park fire personnel quickly and efficiently respond to protect these sites.

During early June 2022, the Alaska Eastern Area fire management staff began creating fuel breaks, areas of land treated and changed to help stop or slow the spread of a fire, around ancestral land allotments. Fuel breaks protect these allotments and provide fire managers with multiple options to manage wildfires and space to make decisions from when a fire starts in the area. In the end, fire managers hope to be able to meet both protection and resource management objectives. The projects are part of a five-year treatment plan to protect park infrastructure and cultural resources.

Partners at the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) worked with NPS on this project. The BIA notified the owners or heirs of the allotments that the fuels treatments would be taking place on NPS-administered lands adjacent to their allotment. Two BLM employees from the Alaska Fire Service served as motorboat operators and helped create the fuel breaks. The team of nine created a shaded fuel break that included protecting the soils and feathermosses, thus limiting the amount of preparation needed in the event of a wildfire nearby. The piles left on site will be burned during winter 2022-2023.

The fuel break will assist firefighters if the sites need protection from a wildfire. The value of this type of fuels work was demonstrated in summer 2022 when the Biederman Fire burned very close to a treated site at the historically significant Biederman allotment. The NPS started the fuels work there in 2014 and has made significant progress protecting structures in the allotment. During the 2022 Biederman Fire, the fuels treatment greatly reduced the need for firefighter support and will continue to do so in future fire events.

Left image
West Monument, East View, before fuels treatment work.
Credit: NPS

Right image
West Monument, East View, after fuels treatment work.
Credit: NPS