Fire Ecology Annual Report 2018 Fire Season

By Jennifer L. Barnes and Jennifer L. Hrobak

View from the Yukon River of the smoke column building on the Andrew Creek Fire July 25, 2018.

NPS Photo/R. Nilsson

The 2018 fire season was slow in Alaska, rain moderated fire activity throughout much of the summer. Sporadic dry spells allowed fires to gain some growth in June and late July. By the end of the season, a total of 360 fires were reported with 411,591 acres burned in Alaska, falling below the ten year average of approximately 1.26 million acres and the median annual area burned 576,353 acres.

Despite the relatively quiet fire season in Alaska for 2018, the National Park Service in Alaska had a moderate fire season. Overall, 24 wildfires spanned across seven park units for a total of 36,342 acres that burned within and adjacent to park boundaries with 21,305 acres burned on NPS owned lands (Table 1). Cape Krusenstern National Monument had six lightning caused fires in early June. This was unprecedented for the area, which has only had four fires since 1955. The largest fire within the park boundaries was Andrew Creek in Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, which burned 7,869 acres. Western Area fire management staff accomplished fuels reduction at 14 sites and burned the Admin pile in Denali during 2018 and Eastern Area fire management staff accomplished fuels reduction projects at 12 sites in 2018 (Table 1).

Table 1. Wildfires, fuels treatments and prescribed fires in Alaska park units from 2018.

Park Unit	Number of Wildfires1	Total Acres Burned1	Number of Wildfires started on NPS Lands2	Acres Burned NPS Lands2	Number of Fuels Treatment Sites	Acres of Prescribed Fires
Bering Land Bridge	1	2.9	1	2.9	-	-
Cape Krusenstern	6	287	6	287	-	-
Denali	4	18,284	3	3,250.9	9	3.09
Gates of the Arctic	1	736.3	1	736.3	-	-
Kobuk Valley	-	-	-	-	2	-
Noatak	1	517.6	1	517.6	3	-
Wrangell-St. Elias	3	0.3	2	0.2	6	-
Yukon-Charley Rivers	8	16,514	7	16,510	6	-
Total for Region	24	36,342	21	21,305	20	3.09

¹ Includes total number of fires and acres of all wildfires that burned within or partially within the boundaries of the park unit. NPS boundaries include inholdings of lands not owned or managed by NPS. ² Number of wildifres started and acres burned on NPW owned lands (WFMI stats).