RMNP Fire Web Application: A New Tool for Managers

Article Highlights

• Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) collaborates with partner agencies and stakeholders in fire planning and prevention efforts.
• Strategic fuels treatments in RMNP protect people, infrastructure, and resources, and support partner agency fire planning and management.
• The new RMNP Fire Web Application helps share important fuels treatment information from RMNP with national, state, and local fire management agencies and forest/watershed partnerships.
• The RMNP Fire Web Application was developed as a tool for land managers. It also shares information on fuels treatments for interested members of the public.

RMNP Fire Web Application Preview that shows the RMNP Boundary, perimeters of the 2020 fires, and colored polygons representing fuels treatment blocks in RMNP and outside the park as part of the St. Vrain Forest Health Partnership.

During the 2020 fire season, the Cameron Peak and East Troublesome fires burned roughly 30,000 acres in Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP). In total, these fires burned almost 200,000 acres each and spanned multiple management jurisdictions including U.S. Forest Service (USFS) lands, country lines, RMNP, and several surrounding communities. Cross-boundary fires like Cameron Peak and East Troublesome are not uncommon₁ and highlight the need for interagency collaboration to effectively plan for and manage wildland fires.

Fuels treatments are widely used across land management agencies to prepare for wildland fire and aid in firefighting efforts. Several studies, including one in RMNP, have found fuels treatments can help lessen extreme fire behavior within treatment footprints by slowing rate of spread, shifting crown fires to surface fires, and decreasing fire severity₂. In addition, a new literature synthesis by the Rocky Mountain Research Station found fuels treatments can also decrease extreme fire behavior across a landscape₂ suggesting the benefits of fuels treatments extend beyond treatment boundaries. In places like RMNP, this means strategically placed fuels treatments may further protect adjacent communities like Estes Park, Grand Lake, and others from extreme fire behavior.

Identifying mutually beneficial fuels treatment locations requires collaboration between RMNP, partner agencies, and stakeholders. To aid in this collaboration, RMNP recently developed a Fire Web Application. The web application aggregates park and partner fuels treatment projects, park and partner fire planning and management zones, and fire risk data to provide a wholistic picture of fuels management across the region.

The RMNP Fire Web Application can be used by RMNP staff and partners to:

• Share locations of potential, planned, and completed RMNP fuels treatments

• Aid in strategic placement of RMNP fuels treatments to protect people, infrastructure and communities

• Aid in strategic planning of RMNP fuels treatments to support partner agency fire management efforts

• Monitor vegetation response to fuels treatment and in burned areas and

• Inform partner agencies and the public of RMNP’s ongoing fire planning and management efforts.

Funding for the RMNP Fire Web Application was generously provided by the Rocky Mountain Conservancy.

• RMNP Fire Web Application

Access the RMNP Fire Web Application

Note: An ArcGIS Online Account is required to access the RMNP Fire Web Application. To create a free, public account, click here. Non-DOI users will not have access to all layers.

Explore the Data Layers

Base Data

Includes basic orientation layers like RMNP boundary, USFS lands, park infrastructure (roads, trails, buildings, etc.), natural features (lakes, streams, summits, etc.), and others

ROMO Fire Planning and Compliance

Includes locations of potential, planned, and completed fuels treatments within RMNP.

Past Fires

Includes reconstructed perimeters of past fires in RMNP over the last 400 years. Perimeters of recent fires that burned both inside and outside RMNP provide recent fire history in a regional context.

Neighboring Partner Agencies

Includes locations of other fire planning efforts, fire management districts, and fuels treatment projects conducted by partner agencies like Estes Valley Fire Protection District, U.S. Forest Service, and Northern Colorado Fireshed Collaborative.

Fire Risk

Includes regional/national layers illustrating burn probability, structure risk, wildfire hazard potential, etc.

Vegetation

Includes locations of RMNP Fire Effects Monitoring plots, and layers of vegetation cover type, canopy cover, etc.

Citations

1. Downing, W.M., Dunn, C.J., Thompson, M.P. et al. Human ignitions on private lands drive USFS cross-boundary wildfire transmission and community impacts in the western US. Sci Rep 12, 2624 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-06002-3

2. Jain, T.B., Abrahamson, I., Anderson, N., Hood, S., Hanberry, B., Kilkenny, F., McKinney, S., Ott, J., Urza, A., Chambers, J., Battaglia, M., Varner, J.M., O’Brien, J.J. Effectiveness of fuel treatments at the landscape scale: State of understanding and key research gaps. JFSP PROJECT ID: 19- S-01- Boise, ID: Joint Fire Sciences Program. 65 p (2021). https://www.fs.usda.gov/rm/pubs_journals/2021/rmrs_2021_jain_t001.pdf