ALTERNATIVES

The following reasonable alternatives were developed in discussions among an interdisciplinary team of park preparers and consultants, as identified later in this document.

Alternative 1. No New Action, Total Wildland Fire Suppression Continues

Agate’s current fire management policy (AGFO 1988) is as follows.

A. Suppress, by utilizing a direct control strategy, all wildfires that threaten human life, developed property, to leave park boundaries, or to adversely impact cultural (paleontological [sic] or historic) resources.

B. Suppress, by utilizing a containment strategy, all other wildfires when they reach an existing firebreak or a suitable location to initiate a backfire.

C. Suppression will be done in a prompt, safe, aggressive and cost effective manner commensurate with minimum damage to park resources.

Should an outside agency participate in the suppression of fire with the Monument, it must be recognized that Monument personnel are ultimately responsible for the protection of natural and cultural resources. The use of heavy equipment, e.g., bulldozers or other vehicles which may excessively disturb surface or subsurface resources will not be allowed except to save human life. Smaller, less intrusive, vehicles will be used only when other methods of extinguishing the fire are not practical.

Wildland fire suppression activities at Agate work from established roads and trails throughout the park, including River Road and well roads that extend from River Road north and south to private property wells. Firefighters are provided with sensitivity maps for the protection of cultural and geological/fossil resources with known scientific and cultural values, so those resources can be avoided by mechanical disturbance and, in the case of the Bone Cabin and Hoffman House, provided special protection. These maps are returned to park files after their use, so their locational information is not retained in public.

Under Alternative 1, no mechanical reduction (mowing) of hazardous fuels for fire management is authorized, nor is the use of prescribed fire for general fuel load reduction. Mowing around the Agate Visitor Center and Museum and picnic areas, Bone Cabin Complex, maintenance facility, and five employee residences is done as part of the park’s landscape maintenance and human safety program. While this has obvious benefits in minimizing potential impacts of wildfire, it is not conducted primarily for fire control. Mowing is currently an element in Agate’s integrated Canada thistle control program in heavily infested and machine-accessible areas. This is not an authorized fire management effort, and results in increased duff in the mowed areas.

The use of prescribed fire to enhance resources is also not authorized if this alternative is accepted. A new Agate fire management plan will be developed to comply with current nationwide Service policy, but the park-specific policy underlying that plan will remain essentially unchanged from what it has been since 1988.

Inferred within this wildland fire management policy is a directive to wet down all park structures, including the Visitor Center and Museum, if they are threatened, but to leave the structures and move to a position of personal safety unless one is a qualified structural firefighter. This directive is the same for all alternatives offered here.

Alternative 2 (Preferred). Fire Management Program includes Suppression and Prescribed Fire

Agate managers prefer to implement a multi-faceted fire management program at the park that includes suppression of wildland fires as discussed under Alternative 1, as well as the use of prescribed fire to reduce Agate’s hazardous fuel load. The park would like to use prescribed fire to enhance the park’s native ecology, specifically to reduce the current infestation of cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum); reduce the Canada thistle (Cirsium arvense) seedbed and infiltration among willows that persists despite an active thistle control program (Knudson 2003); and possibly increase the proportion of native forbs in the Agate prairie.

Agate is set within steep valley walls and draws, with unpredictable updrafts. In the main Niobrara Valley terraces and intervening wetlands, hazardous fuel may be safely burned under prescription whereas wetlands aren’t always accessible for mowing. Detailed evaluation of the Agate landscape, using information held in relational vegetation, Canada thistle insectaries, hydrological, soils, cultural, fossil, geological, and infrastructure graphic databases, has assisted in developing the safest, more resource protective/enhancing, and feasible fire management plan to meet a variety of park management objectives under Alternative 2.

As mentioned under the discussion of Alternative 1, prior to conducting a prescribed fire at Agate firefighters would be provided with resource sensitivity maps, so those areas can be protected from mechanical disturbance or provided special protection as needed.

As mentioned previously, Agate participates in the Northern Great Plains Area Fire Management group as well as under a Mutual Aid agreement with the Harrison Rural Fire Protection District. Firefighters and engines from these organizations, as well as other local and federal firefighting units in the area, would be called on to participate in any prescribed fire on Agate lands. A Fire Management Plan (see attached) and included Fire Effects Monitoring Plan has been developed to implement Alternative 2 use of prescribed fire, should that be the accepted alternative.

Alternative 3. Fire Management Program includes Suppression and Mowing without Prescribed Fire

Following this alternative, the park would continue to suppress wildfires, would mow some natural vegetation to reduce hazardous fuels on its lands, and would not use prescribed fire as discussed in Alternative 2. Prairie lands on the 15' or Holocene terraces would be mowed, and on the alluvial fans that extend from that terrace north or south to the park boundaries. The accessible T1 terrace (~6"-1' above the river) would also be mowed, but the rest of the wetlands are not mower-accessible. Mowing would be done with a flail and/or sickle mower followed by removal of vegetation by a rake and baler. The work could be done by park staff or a contractor. Up to 1200 acres of the contiguous park lands would be mowed. The valley bottom/terraces (~25 acres) in the Stenomylus Quarry section would also be mowed. Prescribed fire would not be used to reduce the hazardous fuel loads on the Agate landscape, thus addressing some local concerns about potential out-of-control fires.

Summary Assessment of Alternatives and Associated Environmental Consequences

For ease in evaluating the impact of these alternatives, and based on the detailed discussion presented in a subsequent section, the following table (Table 1) summarizes the environmental consequences associated with each alternative. Those consequences are discussed in detail later in this document.

Table 1. Alternatives and Associated Environmental Impacts

ALTERNATIVES: AFFECTED ENVIRONMENT:	1 (No New Action; Suppression only)	2 (Suppression and Prescribed Fire [PREFERRED])	3 (Suppression and Mowing)
Archeological Sites	Negligible to minor adverse direct impacts
Historic Properties, including Cultural Landscapes and Traditional Cultural Properties	Negligible impacts
Ethnographic Resources	Negligible impacts
Fossils and Associated Geological Deposits	Negligible impacts
Soils	Negligible impacts		Moderate direct adverse impacts
Flora (general)	Minor direct beneficial impacts
Fauna (general)	Negligible impacts
Wetlands and Floodplains	Minor direct beneficial impact possible, otherwise negligible impact	Minor direct beneficial impacts	Minor direct beneficial impact possible, otherwise negligible impact
Threatened and Endangered Species	No such species in the park
Exotic Species	Minor site-specific and local direct beneficial impact possible, otherwise negligible impact	Moderate site-specific and local direct beneficial impact	Minor site-specific and local direct beneficial impact possible, otherwise negligible impact
State-Listed Rare Plants	Negligible impact		Minor direct adverse impact
Fuel Load	Minor direct beneficial impact possible, otherwise negligible impact	Moderate beneficial impact	Minor direct beneficial impact possible, otherwise negligible impact
Hydrological Resources	Negligible direct site-specific and local adverse impact
Air Resources	Minor direct site-specific and local adverse impact
Socioeconomic Resources, including Health and Safety and Environmental Justice	Minor local indirect beneficial impact possible, otherwise negligible impact except for risk of fire escape	Minor local indirect beneficial impact, except for risk of fire escape	Minor local indirect beneficial impact

THE AFFECTED ENVIRONMENT INCLUDING HISTORIC PROPERTIES

Cultural Resources

Agate’s long-term objective is to identify and preserve all the cultural resources found on its fee lands, as well as identify those cultural resources found on non-federal lands within the Agate boundaries. The area of cultural resource analysis is Agate fee-owned lands.

Archeological Sites

Most of Agate’s surface-evident archeological sites (95) have been inventoried by qualified specialists over the past 25 years, and all of these sites are known or presumed to be in good condition. Field condition assessment of all known sites will be documented during 2004. Figure 2 indicates the areas of documented site inventory. Most of the known sites only have components older than 150 years, with flaked stone artifacts or pieces of pottery, and all of the known deposits are sparse, even to depths of 120cm (Clark 1993:12). Test excavations (e.g., Clark 1993, 1994; Olinger 1980; Wandsnider and MacDonell 1997) have provided little information about the period(s) in which the sites were occupied. While there are one or two artifacts that were probably first manufactured up to 9,000 years ago, most of the material

appears to date to the last thousand years. However, as mentioned previously, the Agate landscape has probably been used by people for the past 11,000 years.

Historic Properties (including Cultural Landscapes and Traditional Cultural Properties)

The original archeological surveys of Agate lands (Kay 1975) inventoried a large number of sites in part because cattle grazing had only ended the previous year and the ground surface was readily apparent. By the time Nickel (2002) resurveyed the northern portions of the park in 1996, the buildup of grass and duff made the surface difficult to see. There is evidence of two historic homesteads and one historic Euroamerican gravesite in the Agate archeological record, and there are probably a few more remnants of the early twentieth century homesteading effort in the Niobrara River Valley. One of these historic sites is within the Bone Cabin Complex (see below).

Adverse impacts to these resources would cause the loss of scientific and humanistic information values, either from disturbance of the archeological site context or from changes in the artifact form (e.g., potlidding of flaked stone artifacts so as to modify or destroy their temporally diagnostic scar patterns, melting of glass artifacts, or burning of structural timbers).

Agate’s Bone Cabin Complex (NeHBS #SX00-28) is a historic property listed on the National Register of Historic Places (Sanford n.d.), and the vernacular Cabin and associated windmill and fence have been restored. These structures are listed on the List of Classified Structures, as are several rock mounds presumed to be >100 years old and associated with Native Americans. The latter are part of Agate’s traditional cultural property suite within the Agate cultural landscape, as discussed below. The Hoffman House is near the Bone Cabin Complex. It was constructed in 1952, is now Register-eligible as a feature within the Agate cultural landscape, and is currently used as an Agate employee residence.

All the lands within the Agate park boundaries are in the process of being documented and nominated to the National Register as a cultural landscape, with several component landscapes. The Red Cloud Campsite component landscape (NPS 2002b), which includes federal fee-owned lands south of the Niobrara River on the east side of and immediately adjacent to S. H. 29, is included within the Red Cloud Campsite area. There are no surface-evident remnants of the historic activities associated with this component landscape. The historic Fort Laramie-Fort Robinson freight trail is reported to have traversed the length of the park on the north side of the Niobrara River, but has not been documented; the late nineteenth-early twentieth century ranch roads on either side of the river through the park have also not been documented.

One complex of a dozen traditional cultural properties has been identified at Agate by the Lakota (LeBeau 2002), and the park is in the process of nominating this complex to the National Register of Historic Places as the Crazy Buffalo Complex Traditional Cultural Property. The complex consists of humanly constructed and natural rock and topographic features associated with the Lakota Crazy Buffalo tradition and related ceremonies. The Complex is considered to be a sacred site. Traditional cultural properties are considered by Native Americans to be a part of the natural landscape and ecological system, as is fire, and therefore modification of them by fire would be a natural event. However, disturbance of these properties by mechanical disturbance or inappropriate human behavior could be an adverse impact to them, as the sacred nature of the property could be violated.

Historic properties are eligible for listing on the National Register because, in part, of their integrity. These properties would be adversely affected if fire or fire suppression activities cause the properties to lose their integrity and become ineligible for the Register.

Ethnographic Resources

Agate's ethnographic resources include places, sites, structures, landscapes, and objects, which may or may not be historic or traditional cultural properties or archeological sites. As mentioned previously, these are of concern to 31 affiliated Native American tribes, as well as to the regional Euroamerican ranching community. Again, as mentioned previously, these are all considered to be part of Agate's environment that could be affected by the proposed fire program. As discussed above, these properties are considered by Native Americans to be a part of the natural landscape and ecological system, as is fire, and therefore modification of them by fire would be a natural event. However, disturbance of these properties by mechanical disturbance or inappropriate human behavior would be an adverse impact to them, as (if an attribute) the sacred nature of the property could be violated.

Biological and Geological Resources

Agate’s long-term objective is to identify and preserve all the paleontological resources on its fee lands, as well as identify the geological and biological resources there (including soils, flora and fauna, hydrology, and air) and preserve the habitat and faunal community insofar as is appropriate and feasible. Although difficult to achieve in a changed modern world, the Service’s goal is to restore an Agate ecosystem to a state comparable to that found on these lands in the late nineteenth century. The area of biological and geological resource analysis is the Agate fee-owned lands.

Fossil and Associated Geological Deposits

Agate Fossil Beds National Monument obviously exists in large part because of its Miocene mammal fossils and their associated paleoecological contexts. There has been a century of research on this internationally known paleontological resource, and its geological deposits. A compilation of specific fossil and related geological locality locations, their attributes, and their local, regional, tribal, national, and international significance is being documented during summer 2003. The park’s goal is to protect all known localities from potential harm from uncontrolled intense heat or inappropriate mechanical or human impacts. Table 2 is a listing of Agate’s presently known fossil and important (have information value) geological localities, the presence of any kind of scientific documentation (other than listing in the park database), and their proximity to present interpretive or management trails or roads.

Table 2. Agate Fossil Beds National Monument Fossil and Geological Localities

LOCALITY NAME	PROXIMITY TO TRAIL	DOCUMEN-TATION
Agate Ash Dated Section	no	yes
Agate Ash Outcrops (3 localities)	no	yes
Agate Ash Quarry	no	no
Agate Road Quarry	no	no
Artiodactyl Locality I	no	no
Artiodactyl Locality II	no	no
Beardog Hill	no	yes
Buffalo Woman Rock w/ Daemonelix	no	no
Carnegie Hill North Quarry	yes	yes
Carnegie Hill Northwest Quarry	yes	yes
Carnegie Hill South Quarry	yes	yes
Carnegie Hill Southwest Quarry	yes	yes
Carnegie Hill West Quarry	yes	yes
Carnegie Quarry 3	no	yes
Daemonelix Group	yes	no
Deep Daemonelix	yes	no
Double Daemonelix	yes	no
Hickey Locality	no	no
North Ridge	no	no
North Ridge (Carnegie Quarry A)	no	yes
North Ridge North Outcrop	no	no
North Ridge South Outcrop	no	yes
Paleodunes	yes	no
Paleocastor skull	no	no
Stenomylus Quarry	no	no
University Hill	yes	yes
University Quarry	yes	yes

NB: Most of the data is from Hunt 1984

These localities are identified on Agate’s GIS database, and their general area will be identified on sensitivity maps to be protected and/or avoided during wildland fire suppression or prescribed wildfire.

Soils

Agate’s soils (NRCS 1998) are mapped and those data are available as a rectified AGFO GIS data layer; they are summarized in Table 3 and their distribution illustrated in Figure 3. The darkest soils represent the Niobrara River wetlands (Lc, Bh soils), while the major terraces with their native grasslands and exotic cheatgrass (OwB, AwD soils) and frequent archeological associations, and the higher slopes (AwE soils) are represented in the intermediate grays. The butte tops and breaks are the lightest gray to white (BxE, RkG, TbG soils) and have frequent traditional cultural property and fossil/geological associations. The complex terrain is illustrated by the interfingering of the various soil distributions.

The Agate soils are categorized as "Well Drained and Somewhat Excessively Drained, Sandy and Loamy Soils on Hillslopes, Alluvial Fans, and Stream Terraces" in either the Mitchell-Otero-Ashollow or Otero-Las Animas-Lisco associations (NRCS 1998). The soils receive little rainfall during the summer, which can result in soil blowing. Once vegetation is crushed, and indentations are made in the friable topsoil, the damage to vegetation and soil lasts for many growing seasons but would not change the fundamental nature of the soils.

Table 3. Agate Fossil Beds National Monument Soils

SYMBOL	SOIL NAME	COMMENT
AwD	Ashollow loamy very fine sand, 3%-9% slopes	Terraces about 4420’ elevation
AwE	Ashollow loamy very fine sand, 9%-20% slopes	Slopes above the 4420’ terraces
Bh	Bigwinder fine sandy loam, 0%-1% slopes	River channel, wetlands
BxE	Busher-Tassel complex, 6%-20% slopes	Ridges either side of the Fossil Hills
Lc	Las Animas-Lisco complex, 0%-2% slopes, occasionally flooded	Terrace 1’-2’ above water level
OwB	Otero loamy very fine sand, 0%-3% slopes	Terraces about 4400’ elevation; Visitor Center and Museum level
RkG	Rock outcrop-Tassel complex, 9%-70% slopes	Fossil Hills, Stenomylus Quarry hill
TbG	Tassel-Ashollow-Rock outcrop complex, 9%-60% slopes	Tableland, with Daemonelix in the edges of these

Figure 3. Agate Fossil Beds National Monument Soils Distribution Map

Flora (general)

Agate has a relatively complete inventory of its plant community, which has been mapped (http://biology.usgs.gov/npsveg/AGFO), and the lichens have been documented (Wetmore 1998). Agate is part of the Prairie Cluster Long-Term Ecological Monitoring program (DeBacker and Mlekush 2000, Thomas et al. 2001), and is a member of the Northern Great Plains Inventory and Monitoring Network (2001).

The vegetation communities are structured into wetlands, terrace and slope mixed prairie grasslands, and valley breaks and tablelands. The park is

…in the central portion of the northern mixed-grass prairie of the high plains. Two-thirds of the park’s 3,000 acres consist of mixed grass prairie, the most common type being sandreed/sand bluestem prairie. Needle & thread/blue grama prairie occurs on shoulders of flat-topped hills and on eroding sandstone slopes on the sides of hills, while western wheatgrass, willow and cottonwoods are common to the floodplain of the Niobrara River. The Niobrara River, originating 60 miles to the west, provides important habitat for prairie birds and wildlife. Seasonally flooded gravel washes provide habitat for several state listed rare plant species. (Thomas et al. 2001:A-2)

The near-century of domestic cattle and horse grazing across the Agate landscape (which ended in 1974) has resulted in a relative forb (e.g., aster, puccoon, lupine, vetch, phlox)-poor prairie. Burning across the prairie in summer or fall could promote better forb growth, whereas burning in the spring would promote growth of grasses.

Fauna (general)

Agate has a relatively complete inventory of its plant and animal communities, including its birds (Powell 2000), fish (Stasiak 1990), and mammals, reptiles, and amphibians (Graetz, Garrott and Craven 1995). The park supports most of the animal species characteristic of the northern Great Plains (92 birds, 31 mammals, 16 reptiles, 6 amphibians). Both white-tailed and mule deer are common, as are coyotes, badgers, pocket gophers, cottontail rabbits, kangaroo rats, woodrats, moles, and deer and pocket mice. Prairie rattlesnakes, racers, and garter snakes are present, as are lizards, toads, and frogs. Powell (2000) recorded 50 species of birds at Agate, including western meadowlark, lark bunting, grasshopper sparrows, red-winged blackbirds, and lark sparrows in descending order of abundance. Great blue herons, wood ducks, mallards, red-tailed hawks, kestrels, prairie chickens, bobwhites, killdeer, doves, short-eared owls, flickers, phoebes, kingbirds, swallows, longspurs, grosbeaks, dickcissels, and goldfinches are also present, and golden eagles are occasionally sighted.

The Niobrara River through the park supports a macroinvertebrate fauna probably once typical of the western portion of the high plains, a mixture of Midwestern, Rocky Mountain, and widespread species (Harris, Kondratieff, and Boyle 1991; NPS 1998a: 4-54-55). This fauna is indicative of the health of the small river. The sandy to sand/mud stream substrate receives a lot of solar radiation, but doesn’t support much surface algae.

Wetlands and Floodplains

Agate’s riverine wetlands are recognized by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers and are included in the National Wetland Inventory (http://wfs.sdstate.edu). They are recognized as wetlands by the State of Nebraska (cf. LaGrange 1997). They cover approximately 468 acres of the Agate fee-owned landscape and consist of western wheatgrass [Pascopyrum smithii], Baltic rush [Juncus balticus], and cattail [Typhus latifolia] herbaceous vegetation and sandbar willow [Salix exigua] shrublands. They appear to contribute litter and detritus to the Niobrara River that meanders through them at a very low gradient. Canada thistle (Cirsium arvense) has infiltrated the willow shrubland.

Figure 4. Agate Fossil Beds National Monument Wetlands Map

The Agate Fossil Beds National Monument floodplain is coincidental with its wetlands supplemented by the low (6"-1') Niobrara River terrace adjacent to the wetlands. This floodplain is set down 15'-20' within the park's primary Holocene terraces, which date to 6737±53 ¹⁴C years before present at their base and range up to 1,410±37 ¹⁴C years before present about 1' below their present surface (Sabin 2002).

Threatened and Endangered Species

There are no federally or Nebraska-listed threatened or endangered plant or animal species resident at Agate Fossil Beds National Monument.

State Listed Rare Plants

The vegetation on public and private Agate park lands was thoroughly inventoried in the mid-1990s (USGS 1998), and has been part of the Prairie Cluster Long-Term Ecological Monitoring program since 1995 (Thomas et al. 2001). During these inventories six species of plants of special concern, as listed in Table 4, have been identified on Agate fee lands.

Table 4. Nebraska-Listed Plants of Special Concern

SPECIES	COMMON NAME	NEBRASKA STATUS^*
Chenopodium subglabrum (S. Wats.) A. Nels	Smooth goosefoot	S3
Erigeron ochroleucus Nutt.	Buff fleabane	S2
Eriogonum cernuum Nutt.	Nodding wild buckwheat	S1
Fritillaria atropurpurea Nutt.	Purple mission bells	S2
Phacelia hastata Dougl. ex Lehm.	Scorpionweed	S2
Tripterocalyx micranthus (Torr.) Hook.	Small-flowered sand verbena	S1

^*S1=critically imperiled, S2=imperiled, S3=rare or uncommon, SU=status undetermined; NNHP 2002

Exotic Species

Based on all of Agate's plant and animal resource documentation (NPS 2002a), the park is known to contain 49 exotic plant species and 11 exotic animal species (10 birds, 1 fish). Of these, only two species (Canada thistle [Cirsium arvense] and cheatgrass [Bromus tectorum]) are targeted for treatment because of their relatively wide distribution across the park ecosystem and adverse impacts to the native vegetation. Canada thistle is listed as a noxious weed in Nebraska (Noxious Weed Control Act [Neb. Rev. Stat. § 2-945 et seq.], 25 NAC 10 et seq.). The thistle is limited to the low (~6"-1' high) Niobrara River terraces and interfingers with the wetland cattails and willows. The cheatgrass is densest on the 15' or Holocene terraces and associated alluvial fans that have been disturbed by plowing or domestic grazing in the past century or so, including the area of the Buckley and Hoffman fields and the Hoffman corrals and horse pasture.

In 1997 Canada thistle (Cirsium arvense) had infested some 125 acres of park fee lands. The NPS (1999:5) is working toward control of these nonnative species where they jeopardize native plant communities. An integrated pest management program was initiated in 1997 to control this exotic weed, including the establishment of eight insectaries with varying percentages of Ceutorhyncus litura (stem-mining weevil) and/or Urophora cardui (stem and shoot gall fly).

Figure 5. Biocontrol Release Sites, Agate Fossil Beds National Monument

Infested acres outside of the insectaries are mowed before the set of thistle heads and/or treated with herbicide after the first killing frost. The program has been documented in Agate's Geographic Information System data layer and two annual reports (Gray 2002, Howard 2002), and by 2002 this infestation had been reduced to 25 acres (Knudson 2003). However, with a wet spring in 2003 the thistle increased its spread to some 50 dispersed low density acres. Fire or mechanical disturbance of the insectaries in the spring would inhibit initial development of the weevils or galls in the young thistle plants, and would destroy them in the early summer (June-July) when they are in the stems. A quick hot fire through these areas in the fall would probably have only minor adverse impacts, and this would be mitigated in the gall fly release areas if the galls were harvested prior to burning.

Based on a 2002 field assessment, it was estimated that some 200 acres of park fee lands were infested with Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass). This is generally confined to the Hoffman corral areas on the terrace south of the Niobrara and the Bone Cabin Complex, and to the Buckley oldfield that was planted to potatoes for a year or so in the mid-1950s. Wendtland conducted a small fire research project in the northern area of the oldfield and noted that cheatgrass was the primary grass in his study plots (1993:31) but that there were also quantities of native western wheatgrass (Agropyron [Pascopyrum] smithii), needleandthread grass (Stipa comata), and blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis). Dodd and Smith (1994:5) recommended fall burning of cheatgrass-infested areas to destroy newly germinated seedlings.

Fuel Load

Since Agate “routinely [has a] continuous cover of [mixed grass] fuel loads that exceed the minimum necessary to spread fire during late summer and early fall it is prudent to conclude [it] probably had fire return intervals of five years or less” (Dodd and Smith 1994). Based on graduate research by Kyle Wendtland (1993), research supervisors Dodd and Smith recommended that Agate’s nineteenth century ecosystem (including the wetlands) could be restored by the managed use of summer fires, probably in August, with a return interval of five years or less. Dodd and Smith recommended that if fall burns are used they should be done every two or three years. While they further recommended that spring burns should be avoided completely because of adverse impacts on the grassland communities, this merits reconsideration in the development of specific burn plans based on detailed vegetation and soils maps.

Hydrological Resources

There are eleven miles of Niobrara River meanders through the west-east length of Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, without any feeder streams. The area of analysis for this assessment is the Niobrara through the park and approximately two miles downstream through private property. This area would include any potential short-term increase in suspended solids in the river as the result of fire burning to or across the river on park lands, whether during wildfire suppression or prescribed fire. The park's wetland vegetation makes it likely that there would be very few if any such solids, because the cattails under the water table and riparian willows will hold sediments.

There has been some reduction of river discharge over the past 30 years, which researchers in the early 1990s thought could be because of upriver groundwater withdrawals (Harris, Kondratieff, and Boyle 1991; NPS 1998a:5-10). Groundwater monitoring in the park was initiated in 2003.

The Niobrara River is a perennial groundwater supplied stream. The flow is consistent with few flood or low water events. …The concentrations of total nitrogen and pho[s]phorus are relatively low compared to most streams indicating that few nutrients are being added. The organic carbon concentrations are low for a range of streams but within that expected for the prairie grassland region…(Harris, Kondratieff, and Boyle 1991; NPS 1998a:3-29).

The average discharge documented by the USGS (Boohar, Hoy, and Steele 1991:42) was 13.6ft.³/s or 9,850 acre-ft/year, with peak flows February through April and lower flows July through September. A new Niobrara River gaging station was installed in 2003 to monitor river flow, with publicly available records maintained by the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources.

Air Resources

The air resource area of analysis for this fire management program assessment, given the average wind direction and speed and local population dispersion discussed below, is defined as the park and an area approximately five miles in all directions.

Agate has a Remote Access Weather Station (RAWS) that records hourly temperature, humidity, wind speed, maximum wind speed, wind direction, precipitation, and fuel stick temperature and moisture. From July 1997 to September 2002, Agate temperatures ranged from -22°F. to104°F., with maximum temperatures of 95°F. to 104°F. in June through August. Minimum temperatures in December through February ranged from -5°F. to the low -22°F. Mean annual precipitation at the park was 10.91", ranging from 12.97" in 1998 to 5.85" in 2002 with most of it falling from January to August. The prevailing mid-day winds recorded from 1987 through 2000 were predominantly from the northwest, secondarily in descending order from the west, southwest, and south, and were only calm 12% of the time. During the period for which records are presently available at the park (October 1, 2001, through February 28, 2002), the average wind speed was 13 mph with a range from 0pmh to 40mph (February norther).

A National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration U. S. Climate Reference Network meteorological station was installed in the park in late August 2003, and it will eventually provide real time quality-assured Internet-accessible temperature, wind, and precipitation data.

The Niobrara River valley and its included wetlands through the Agate Fossil Beds National Monument is incised some 250’ below the surrounding tablelands. The prevailing northwesterly and westerly winds across these tablelands are often drier and warmer than the air down in the valley, resulting in local inversions that hold in cool moist air. For example, from 1 October 2001 through 28 February 2002, Agate’s daily RAWS-recorded humidity reached 100% 40 nights, about 25% of the time, with most of the humidity in October and November. Scheduling prescribed fires has to take this microclimate into consideration.

Air quality and visibility at Agate are good. John Ray (2002; cf. EPA 2000), NPS Air Quality Specialist, estimates that over the past five years the ozone levels at Agate have been below the Environmental Protection Agency’s Primary Standard, with the fourth highest annual daily eight-hour maximum ozone level being 68-75ppb (85% of the current National Ambient Air Quality Standards) and the average annual daily one-hour maximum at 87-98ppb (74% of the older Standard).

Smoke from wildland or prescribed fires could create a localized, short-term air quality and safety concern. The state of Nebraska doesn’t regulate smoke emissions from prescribed fires. The EPA (1998) has a recommended policy for smoke management during prescribed fires that is based on two public policy goals: “…(1) to allow fire to function, as nearly as possible, in its natural role in maintaining healthy wildland ecosystems, and (2) to protect public health and welfare by mitigating the impacts of air pollutant emissions on air quality and visibility.”

Socioeconomic Resources, including Health and Safety and Environmental Justice

Agate Fossil Beds National Monument is located in a relatively isolated, rural environment, and the area of analysis for this assessment includes ranches and communities within a 35-mile radius of the park. The closest community, Harrison (Sioux County seat), is 22 miles north of the park and has a population of 276. Mitchell is 34 miles south of Agate and has a population of 1,831. Sioux County, in which Agate is relatively centered, has a population of 0.7 persons/mi.², most of who are of Northern Euroamerican background. The minority population in the county is less than 1%. Most Sioux County adults work on farms, and the county and local governments, including the public schools, are the largest institutional employers in the county (Imerman 2002). The Sioux County per capita income in 2001 was $15,563, and 9% of the families in the county were below the poverty level in 1999 (U. S. Census Bureau 2003). Agate is surrounded by private ranchlands, and has two private ranch inholdings (Fig. 1). In fiscal year 2003 Agate has a full-time equivalency employment of eight persons, with eight permanent full- or part-time employees and 5 seasonal employees. Three Volunteers-in-Park were also part of the park "staff" during 2003. Most of the Agate employees live in Sioux County, and half of them are involved in ranching.

Agate has had 18-17,000 visitors each of the past three years, who come to see the landscape and its historic paleontological quarries, and hike the four miles of pedestrian trails, as much as they do to see the paleontological and Native American exhibits. Visitor use is projected to be steady or slowly increasing over the next five to ten years.

Agate has access to emergency medical support from the Harrison Volunteer Fire Department, or from AirLink and Regional West Medical Center, Scottsbluff.

While Agate has its own fire engine, fire cache, and red-carded staff, as mentioned previously it has a General Agreement with the Harrison Rural Fire Protection District (and by extension of their interagency agreement, with the Harrison Volunteer Fire Department) for cooperative fire control activities. In Fiscal Years 2001 and 2002 Agate was able to provide some financial support to the District/Department through the federal Rural Fire Assistance program.

Grass and hay crops are economic commodities in ranching country, and loss of these through wildfire can have adverse effects to a ranch’s financial health. Therefore, it is important that wildfires or prescribed fires that are initiated on the Agate landscape, or that enter into it with the capability of passing through to private lands, be controlled on the Federal lands.

Protection and maintenance of firefighters and any other individuals potentially affected by wildfire or prescribed fire is a primary objective. This objective is a primary motivator in developing an Agate Fire Management Plan and individual burn plans.