Lake Roosevelt Administrative History

Wildland Fire Management

Preventing, detecting, and suppressing wildland fires at LARO has never been a major management concern. Total suppression of all forest fires has been the policy at LARO since it was established, unlike many other park units that now allow natural fires to burn within certain parameters. The main concern at LARO is preventing fires that originate on the narrow strip of federal lands from spreading to adjacent lands. Most of LARO's wildfires are human-caused. In the 1940s, LARO had no funds for any fire detection or suppression, so the Superintendent arranged with the U.S. Coast Guard to provide fire patrols and the necessary equipment for initial attacks. LARO and other agencies in the area agreed that the Park Service had a responsibility to be involved in fire prevention because of the potential of fires being started by visitors in the NRA. LARO began using posters and interpretive programs to spread the fire prevention message. By the terms of the 1946 Tri-Party Agreement, the Park Service was responsible for coordinating fire prevention and suppression efforts within the NRA except for the Indian Zones, for which the BIA was responsible. [131]

LARO worked out agreements with the Colville National Forest, the Washington Department of Conservation and Development, and county fire wardens to provide fire detection and suppression on LARO lands outside of the reservations, paying a fixed annual per-acre fee (3.5 to 6.67 cents per acre) for the services of the Forest Service and the state. In 1952, LARO began to purchase equipment for small fire caches at Kettle Falls and Coulee Dam. Appropriations for fire management remained small, around $500 per year, until the Mission 66 period. LARO's Mission 66 prospectus noted that much greater funding was needed for fire-related activities, including annual spring burning, fire trail construction and maintenance, fire equipment, payments to cooperating fire protection agencies, and structural fire protection. [133]

Communications systems that relied on telephones greatly limited the effectiveness of LARO employees in fighting fires. In the early 1960s, the park began to receive funding for a much-needed radio system. Although LARO had no fire lookouts, several lookouts administered by other agencies covered part of the land area of the NRA. The Park Service relied on employees, visitors, residents, and travelers to report fires. LARO hired seasonal fire control aides as needed to supplement the ranger force in pre-suppression work. In the early 1960s, the written cooperative agreements had expired, but verbal mutual aid agreements continued the cooperative fire protection arrangements of the 1950s. In 1964, LARO signed an agreement with the state providing for mutual initial fire suppression on all Park Service lands plus surrounding state lands within one mile of the Lake Roosevelt shoreline, and this agreement was periodically updated. [134]

The number and acreage of LARO's fires remained small through at least 1980. At that time, the average number of fires per year was three, and the largest was in 1970, when 195 acres of federal land burned. About two-thirds of all fires involved less than one acre of federal land. LARO's 1980 Fire Management Plan re-emphasized full suppression of all fires. LARO began to use the National Interagency Incident Management System in fire emergencies in the 1980s, as did other park units around the country. This system establishes an on-scene management structure that can be used to deal with a wide variety of incidents. To aid in cooperative firefighting and other efforts, Park Service radio frequencies were incorporated into county units. LARO has also recently received some funding for equipment through the nationwide FIREPRO program. [135]

LARO occasionally used controlled burns to reduce fuel loads in developed areas and to burn vegetation in roadside ditches in the 1970s, and it allowed agricultural permittees to burn their leased lands. By 1981, the park was considering implementing a formal prescribed burn program that would help restore the historic scene at Fort Spokane, reduce fire hazard in developed areas, restore natural fuel loading, reestablish the natural influences of fire, maintain open fields, moderate insect activity, improve wildlife habitat, and control exotic plants. In 1995, Park Service representatives from the National Interagency Fire Center and the Columbia Cascades Cluster provided on-site technical assistance to LARO for establishing such a program. The NRA established burn units, personnel were trained in fire ecology, and a draft burn plan for a pilot burn project was prepared. These changes were in line with Park Service direction to use fire to enhance natural systems. LARO is currently preparing the environmental assessment for its prescribed burn plan. [136]

Conclusion

LARO's managers in the 1940s and 1950s looked at the big picture and drew up a basic framework for developing the recreation area that has changed little over succeeding decades. The sites that they envisioned as most suitable for development are, generally, the ones that receive the most use by visitors and attention from park staff today, with a few notable exceptions such as the still-undeveloped Crescent Bay.

The tremendous climb in visitation at LARO in the 1980s and 1990s, and the shift of jurisdiction over the Reservation Zone to the CCT and STI, have had significant impacts on recreation management at LARO. The national recreation area is changing with the times.