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Mesa Verde and Yucca House Fire Management Plan
Mesa Verde National Park » Mesa Verde and Yucca House Fire Management Plan » Document List
The National Park Service (NPS) is seeking public comment on an environmental assessment (EA) to evaluate the impacts of the proposed Fire Management Plan (FMP) at Mesa Verde National Park (MVNP) and Yucca House National Monument (YHNM) (collectively, "the parks"). The FMP EA considers wildland fire management practices, techniques, and tools including ground and aviation operations, suppression, and fire fuels management such as manual, mechanical, and prescribed fire treatments.
• Under Alternative A, the no-action alternative, the NPS would not implement the proposed FMP for the parks. Treatment activities would be limited to full suppression of wildland fires as they occur and maintenance of existing defensible space. The NPS would continue to employ full suppression to control a fire and prevent it from exceeding a defined perimeter. Under the no-action alternative, the NPS would continue to use common tools and strategies associated with fire suppression efforts.
• Under Alternative B, the proposed action and preferred alternative, NPS would implement a new FMP for the parks. Under this alternative, the NPS would manage unplanned fires in the same manner as described under the no-action alternative and would continue to employ full suppression to control a fire and prevent it from exceeding a defined perimeter. In addition, Alternative B provides programmatic support and site-specific analysis of proposed fuel treatment projects that are described in the FMP. The goal is to support and streamline implementation of fuel treatment projects and any future site-specific compliance analyses.
Upon conclusion of this EA and decision-making process, one of the alternatives would be implemented.
Your feedback is important to the NPS and we invite you to comment on this EA during the public review period that ends on August 11, 2023. Click on the 'Open for Comment' link on the left-hand side of this page to access an electronic copy of EA and submit comments online.
Thank you for your interest and participation in this process.
Kayci Cook Collins
Superintendent
• Under Alternative A, the no-action alternative, the NPS would not implement the proposed FMP for the parks. Treatment activities would be limited to full suppression of wildland fires as they occur and maintenance of existing defensible space. The NPS would continue to employ full suppression to control a fire and prevent it from exceeding a defined perimeter. Under the no-action alternative, the NPS would continue to use common tools and strategies associated with fire suppression efforts.
• Under Alternative B, the proposed action and preferred alternative, NPS would implement a new FMP for the parks. Under this alternative, the NPS would manage unplanned fires in the same manner as described under the no-action alternative and would continue to employ full suppression to control a fire and prevent it from exceeding a defined perimeter. In addition, Alternative B provides programmatic support and site-specific analysis of proposed fuel treatment projects that are described in the FMP. The goal is to support and streamline implementation of fuel treatment projects and any future site-specific compliance analyses.
Upon conclusion of this EA and decision-making process, one of the alternatives would be implemented.
Your feedback is important to the NPS and we invite you to comment on this EA during the public review period that ends on August 11, 2023. Click on the 'Open for Comment' link on the left-hand side of this page to access an electronic copy of EA and submit comments online.
Thank you for your interest and participation in this process.
Kayci Cook Collins
Superintendent