Reducing fire risk in Brooks Camp - Katmai National Park and Preserve

Downed dead beetle killed spruce at a monitoring plot in the prescribed treatment area at Brooks Camp.

Jennifer Barnes, NPS

Around 2006, a spruce bark beetle infestation began in Katmai National Park including near the popular bear-watching areas of Brooks Camp. Sixteen years later, most of the large spruce trees are dead and beginning to fall. Park managers have become increasingly concerned about fire risks with the increased dead/down trees and grass thatch, infrastructure damage from falling trees and safety concerns about bear and human movement.

In 2021, staff with Katmai and the Alaska regional office developed a mechanical fuels treatment plan around the infrastructure and trails in Brooks Camp. The plan called for thinning and limbing trees and removing downed trees within a 50-foot buffer of the structures and trails/roads. Approximately 65 acres will be treated over five years. This project will help to reduce the fire potential in Brooks Camp.

SCA women's crew hard at work on their first NPS assignment at Brooks Camp.

Jennifer Barnes, NPS

Alaska NPS fire managers partnered with Katmai National Park, Bureau of Land Management Alaska Fire Service (AFS), and Student Conservation Association (SCA) to begin the fuels reduction project. Through an interagency agreement, Bureau of Land Management Alaska smokejumpers started the project in late fall 2021. In June 2022, a National Park Service (NPS) all-women’s SCA crew were trained for chainsaw use and continued the fuels work at Brooks Camp. The crew made good progress and were followed in fall 2022 by another crew of BLM Alaska smokejumpers. Katmai National Park employees worked with the SCA crew and the smokejumpers on the fuels reduction, as well as resource and cultural compliance. Twenty-four acres were thinned and piled in FY2022 at Brooks Camp.

Smokejumper crew building future burn piles with the dead and down spruce trees removed along the Falls Trail at Katmai National Park & Preserve

Keaton Shepherd, BLM-AFS

As of September 2022, approximately 48% of the multi-year thinning treatment has been completed.

Park managers were also concerned about the potential increase in shrubs or grass after thinning, which could obscure the detection of bears when trying to minimize bear/human interactions. To assess the vegetation changes before and after treatment, regional fire ecologists established 27 pre-treatment monitoring plots in June 2022. The goals are to assess treatment progress, if fire risk was reduced, and assess shifts in vegetation. Regular monitoring will continue over the next decade.

BLM-AFS Smokejumpers hauling woody debris to a burn pile on the beach at Brooks Camp, while bears in the background are more interested in fish .

Keaton Shepherd, BLM-AFS

The work completed in fiscal year 2022 to reduce the fire potential in Brooks Camp received $20,000.00 through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The 2022 fire season emphasized the need for this work when several fires burned within and adjacent to the park.