Working with Denali’s neighbors towards becoming a fire-adapted community

This site, just south of Clear, burned three times over the last few years. Before these fires, this field was a dense stand of black spruce.

Dave Schirokauer, NPS

The 2023 Interior Alaskan fire season was unusual in its late start date, a possible symptom of a novel climate regime to which park managers are busy trying to adapt. Almost 100 years ago, in 1924, a large fire burned through the Nenana Valley and Riley Creek watersheds of Denali National Park & Preserve, an area now containing most of the park’s critical infrastructure. The fire initiated most of the area’s aspen stands which, in the fall season, offer a glowing yellow reminder that we are at the tail end of the fire return interval for this boreal forest patch.

The Denali National Park & Preserve wildland fire crew recently completed 10 acres of fuels treatment (removal of burnable vegetation) in the area—a critical step towards wildfire mitigation and progress towards the goal of becoming a fire-adapted community. However, while wildfire behavior can be altered by implementing fuels reduction, wildfire knows no jurisdictional boundaries, so communities must actively engage before, during and after fire towards the goal of becoming fire-adapted communities.

L to R: Clay Walker (Denali Borough Mayor); Dave Schirokauer (Science & Resources Team Lead, NPS); Keith Mitchell (Acting FMO, NPS); Leah Mitchell (Planner, NPS); Sarah Hayes (General Ranger, NPS); Nathan Grimes (Anderson VFD Chief); Forest Shreeve (Denali Borough Emergency Manager).

Chris Noel, NPS

A great local example of this is the Anderson-Clear area, north of Denali National Park & Preserve, which has experienced several major fires in the last decade. They have taken important steps toward living better with wildfire, conducting fire-adapted community work that proved helpful during the Clear Fire in 2022. On September 18, 2023, a group consisting of multi-disciplinary staff from Denali National Park & Preserve, Denali Borough, and the Anderson Fire Department visited the Anderson-Clear area to survey the various tactical methods implemented by the Incident Management Team during the wildfires and to witness the aftermath of those fires on the landscape. The group saw dozer lines, shaded fuel breaks, masticated fuel breaks, and a site that had burned 2-3 times over the past decade. The group discussed the effectiveness of these treatments, how they can provide safe access for fire crews, and the safety challenges posed by a jumble of pushed-over trees in a straight line.

It was a great day for Denali National Park & Preserve staff to get to know interagency neighbors and brainstorm on future ways to work together to become a fire adapted community!