Badlands National Park has an active prescribed fire program. Prescribed fires are generally carried out in the spring and fall. The park is divided up into several different burn units, and these units are burned with varying frequency based on fire history, ecology, and management objectives.
Recent prescribed fires:
- Picnic (October 1996)
- Big Buffalo (September 1999)
- Horse Pasture (August 1999)
- Roadside (April 2000)
- Pinnacles (April 2000)
- Roadside (May 2001)
- West Sage Creek (October 2001)
- Roadside (April 2002)
- Pinnacles (May 2002)
- Dillon (November 2002)
- Campground (September 2003)
- Roadside (April 2004)
- Tick Draw (September 2004)
- Tick Draw (October 2005)
- Prairie Wind (October 2005)
- Conata 2 (October 2007)
- Conata 1 (October 2007)
- Picnic (September 2009)
Weather forecasting for Badlands is covered by the National Weather Service office at Rapid City, SD. There is one automated weather station at Badlands: Pinnacles.
Training
Annual firefighter refreshers are held at each park. Click here to see the schedule of training at Badlands.
Fire Management Documents
Fire Effects Monitoring Results
Coming soon!
