Increasing decision space for Agency Administrators with fuels work

Fire management plans developed for each national park in Alaska, pre-identify wildfire management options for all areas covered. The four options, Critical, Full, Modified, and Limited, consider the full spectrum of initial responses to wildfire, from suppression actions to periodic surveillance of fires that are allowed to spread naturally across the landscape. These pre-identified options allow fire managers to quickly prioritize areas for protection actions and allocate firefighting resources to achieve objectives.

These pre-identified options, as well as past fuels projects have allowed wildfires to play their natural role in the landscape, reducing burnable vegetation in some areas and giving agency administrators (AAs) increased decision space when wildfire affects their lands. Denali’s nearly 50,000-acre 2019 Foraker Fire served as an example of decision space in a Limited management option area. The default initial action was to assess threats to neighboring values and conduct surveillance and site protection as warranted. After discussion with the AAs, NPS, along with the Bureau of Land Management Alaska Fire Service actively managed the fire by monitoring it from the air and protecting area structures with sprinkler systems. That same year, the NPS Western Area Fire Management staff had accomplished fuels reduction projects at 20 sites and burned 15 acres of debris piles across four units in Denali. As a result of all this work, no structures were lost, and the fire largely fulfilled its natural ecological role.

The Foraker Fire in Denali National Park & Preserve in June 2024.

Rusty Brand, NPS

Since 2022 the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) has augmented funding via $1,875,178 for fuels reduction projects; additional areas in Denali have been treated to reduce the risk to valued resources in the event of wildfire.

When another fire began in roughly the same area in June 2024, also called the Foraker Fire, AAs now had an area with reduced fuels due to the 2019 work. Again, the fire was monitored actively, but ultimately no active tactics were needed, allowing firefighting resources to be prioritized elsewhere. This was a huge benefit, as it was an active fire year in other parts of the state and in the Lower 48 and the limited number of firefighting resources were in high demand elsewhere.

This is just one of many examples of how pre-identified management actions, reduced fuels near values at risk through both fuels treatments and management of wildfires for resource benefits, and close coordination between fire managers and AAs assists AAs in having increased decision space to meet land management objectives in the event of a wildfire in one of Alaska’s national parks.