Fire Management

Mesa Verde is currently in stage 2 fire restrictions. More information can be found on the press release and on the superintendent's order.

For approximately one hundred years, fire suppression in the southwest has increased fuel loadings and density of vegetation in many areas. The likelihood of large destructive wildfires in Mesa Verde National Park is increasing due to increased fuel loadings and recent drought conditions, posing threats to the park's infrastructure, cultural and natural resources, and human safety. Because of the increased threat of large wildfires, Mesa Verde has implemented several strategies to help protect the park's resources and human life. In addition to basic suppression, the park has initiated programs for prescribed fire and hazard fuel reduction. Although the threat of fire still exists, Mesa Verde National Park is becoming increasingly prepared to defend itself because of these fire protection and prevention programs.

(To get the Free Adobe Reader, which is required to read the pdf files, click here.)

 

•National Park Service Fire Subject Site: Structural and wildland fire information in the NPS.

 

•Archeology and Fire (8.5" x 14" pdf, 244 kb) describes how past wildfires have affected archeology and the cultural resources within the park.

•Prescribed Fire and Hazardous Fuels Reduction at Mesa Verde
(8.5" x 11" pdf, 600 kb)

•Mesa Verde Wildfire History (8.5" x 11" pdf, 194 kb) an overview of the larger wildfires in Mesa Verde's past.

 

Mesa Verde National Park Fire History map:

•Fire History Map, 1933 - 2008 (jpg, 1.1 mb)