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Fire Management Plan, Capitol Reef National Park
Capitol Reef National Park » Fire Management Plan, Capitol Reef National Park » Document List
Capitol Reef National Park has prepared a comprehensive Wildland Fire Management Plan (FMP). The purpose of fire management at Capitol Reef National Park is to protect and conserve the natural and cultural resources of the park for the enjoyment of present and future generations. Desired conditions for park resources include the continuation of the natural fire regime in appropriate areas and protection of cultural resources that could be affected by fire. Wildland fire management is a tool used to maintain and/or restore ecological integrity, but it has a primary goal to protect human life and property, both public and private. This plan is written to provide guidelines for initial attack, appropriate fire management actions, and fire projects at Capitol Reef National Park. Capitol Reef has developed this FMP to facilitate coordination with the adjacent land managing agencies.
There is little evidence or history of past fire within the Park and few fires are expected over the lifetime of this plan. From 1977 through 2005, a total of 12 fires were reported but none were over half an acre in size. Almost all of these fires were lightning caused, burning a single snag or tree. Over 90% of the Park does not contain large enough or dense enough patches of vegetation to sustain a fire, and therefore fire effects on resources are minimal. Appropriate management response would be the primary strategy used by Capitol Reef National Park to decrease potential for unwanted fire, reduce risks for firefighting personnel, protect rare species, and to maintain the natural vitality of park ecosystems.
The primary management response that will be used at the Park is the confine/contain action. A confine/contain action consists of creating or using an existing fuel break around a fire and simply allowing the fire to burn to the fuel break. Within the majority of Capitol Reef, active firefighting actions will not be implemented because natural fuel breaks exist. Using natural fuel breaks may result in slightly larger fires, but provides for firefighter safety and reduces disturbance to the land caused by fire line construction. This strategy allows managers to focus firefighting activities where life, property, and natural or cultural resources are threatened, while allowing other areas to burn out naturally.
Several relatively small areas of vegetation within the Park are contiguous with similar but larger areas on lands managed by other adjacent federal agencies. These contiguous patches along our boundaries have the potential to act as a conduit for fires to exit or enter the Park. Fires in these locations will be managed with a wildland fire use strategy in coordination with the adjacent land managing agency and their fire management strategy. Wildland fire use fires will be used to meet resource management objectives that include reducing hazardous fuel build-up, restoring natural ecosystems that have been modified by prolonged fire exclusion, restoring vegetative composition, researching fire effects, and maintaining natural systems.
The FMP will be on review for 14 days. Copies will be available for review at the Richfield Library, Richfield, Utah, the Tri-County Library in Bicknell, Utah, and at the park library at Capitol Reef National Park, Utah. The document will also be available electronically at http://www.nps.gov/care/pphtml/documents.html. If you wish to comment on the FMP, you may mail comments to the address below or email to CARE_Fire_Management@nps.gov. You may also comment via electronic mail by going to http://parkplanning.nps.gov to access the new NPS comment site. At that website, you will be able to retrieve public documents from all the national parks. Comments should be sent by June 27, 2005.
Capitol Reef National Park
HC 70 Box 15
Torrey, UT 84775
There is little evidence or history of past fire within the Park and few fires are expected over the lifetime of this plan. From 1977 through 2005, a total of 12 fires were reported but none were over half an acre in size. Almost all of these fires were lightning caused, burning a single snag or tree. Over 90% of the Park does not contain large enough or dense enough patches of vegetation to sustain a fire, and therefore fire effects on resources are minimal. Appropriate management response would be the primary strategy used by Capitol Reef National Park to decrease potential for unwanted fire, reduce risks for firefighting personnel, protect rare species, and to maintain the natural vitality of park ecosystems.
The primary management response that will be used at the Park is the confine/contain action. A confine/contain action consists of creating or using an existing fuel break around a fire and simply allowing the fire to burn to the fuel break. Within the majority of Capitol Reef, active firefighting actions will not be implemented because natural fuel breaks exist. Using natural fuel breaks may result in slightly larger fires, but provides for firefighter safety and reduces disturbance to the land caused by fire line construction. This strategy allows managers to focus firefighting activities where life, property, and natural or cultural resources are threatened, while allowing other areas to burn out naturally.
Several relatively small areas of vegetation within the Park are contiguous with similar but larger areas on lands managed by other adjacent federal agencies. These contiguous patches along our boundaries have the potential to act as a conduit for fires to exit or enter the Park. Fires in these locations will be managed with a wildland fire use strategy in coordination with the adjacent land managing agency and their fire management strategy. Wildland fire use fires will be used to meet resource management objectives that include reducing hazardous fuel build-up, restoring natural ecosystems that have been modified by prolonged fire exclusion, restoring vegetative composition, researching fire effects, and maintaining natural systems.
The FMP will be on review for 14 days. Copies will be available for review at the Richfield Library, Richfield, Utah, the Tri-County Library in Bicknell, Utah, and at the park library at Capitol Reef National Park, Utah. The document will also be available electronically at http://www.nps.gov/care/pphtml/documents.html. If you wish to comment on the FMP, you may mail comments to the address below or email to CARE_Fire_Management@nps.gov. You may also comment via electronic mail by going to http://parkplanning.nps.gov to access the new NPS comment site. At that website, you will be able to retrieve public documents from all the national parks. Comments should be sent by June 27, 2005.
Contact Information
SuperintendentCapitol Reef National Park
HC 70 Box 15
Torrey, UT 84775