Resource managers, both natural and cultural, need to be at the table when planning for fire. This needs to happen for planned ignitions (prescribed fire) and during incident management. Fire can be a useful tool when it comes to natural and cultural resources.
Fire is an important tool of natural resource managers. In order to properly manage resources, natural resource managers sometimes start fires or permit naturally occurring fires to burn under very specific conditions. A chief concern among resource managers, in addition to protecting life and property, is public reaction. Researchers suggest that while the public understands the beneficial effects of fire, people often are not tolerant of allowing fires to burn a natural course in national parks or forests because of negative effects associated with wildland fire. Other surveys suggest a growing support among the public for new fire management programs, especially when the objectives and significance of fire management are understood.
Greater public understanding of fire’s ecological significance can lead to enactment of appropriate management policies. The most appropriate management practices, coupled with public support, can provide recreational opportunities and other resource uses on public lands for the good of all people.
Fire is an important tool of natural resource managers. In order to properly manage resources, natural resource managers sometimes start fires or permit naturally occurring fires to burn under very specific conditions. A chief concern among resource managers, in addition to protecting life and property, is public reaction. Researchers suggest that while the public understands the beneficial effects of fire, people often are not tolerant of allowing fires to burn a natural course in national parks or forests because of negative effects associated with wildland fire. Other surveys suggest a growing support among the public for new fire management programs, especially when the objectives and significance of fire management are understood.
Greater public understanding of fire’s ecological significance can lead to enactment of appropriate management policies. The most appropriate management practices, coupled with public support, can provide recreational opportunities and other resource uses on public lands for the good of all people.
Post-fire Programs
Post-fire programs identifies imminent post-wildfire threats to safety, property, and resources and takes action on unacceptable risks.
Showing results 1-10 of 29
- Locations: Lava Beds National Monument
- Offices: Fire and Aviation Management, Wildland Fire Program
In 2023, interns collected and processed hundreds of thousands of native plant seeds at Lava Beds National Monument. In 2024, 4000 propagated native plants were planted at three sites to restore the land after the Caldwell and Antelope fires.
- Locations: Ice Age National Scenic Trail, Indiana Dunes National Park, Mississippi National River & Recreation Area, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Saint Croix National Scenic Riverway, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
- Offices: Fire and Aviation Management, Wildland Fire Program
In 2024, fire management staff from the National Park Service’s Great Lakes Fire Management Zone, based at Indiana Dunes National Park, completed prescribed fires and fuels management projects across six different parks in four states using Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding. Projects consisted of prescribed fires, mechanical fuels reduction, pile burning, ecological surveys, and natural resource monitoring.
- Locations: Yosemite National Park
- Offices: Wildland Fire Program
Fire effects monitoring crews (FEMO) from North Cascades National Park, Grand Teton National Park, and the Fremont-Winema National Forest assisted Yosemite National Park fire crews in measuring post-fire effects of the 2020 Blue Jay and 2021 Lukens fire footprints. Crews measured post-fire effects to ensure that the park is meeting fire management objectives. Data will assist in streamlining approaches to measure reductions in fuel loading and other resource objectives.
- Locations: Crater Lake National Park, Glacier National Park, Mount Rainier National Park, North Cascades National Park, Olympic National Park, Yosemite National Park
Most documentation of the panoramic lookout photos project, which began about 1930 to document areas seen from the lookout system, comes from the US Forest Service. The NPS project began in 1934. Lester Moe worked for the Forest Service taking photos in 1933 and 1934, and later worked for NPS. Several innovations came about from this project: the Osborne photo-recording transit and “special emulsion infra-red sensitive film” not affected by smoke and haze.
The tables on this page list parks and points within parks where a panoramic lookout photo was taken in the 1930s. Data are included for lookout station, azimuth sector, photo serial number, type of film, date of original photograph, photographer, and retake date, where available.
Retake photography allows a viewer to compare how identifying landscape features change over time. There are many uses for these panoramic lookout photographs still today: assisting lookouts and park managers to accurately locate forest fires; identifying vegetation patterns; identifying landscape features; repeat photography to observe changes; and comparing infrared and panchromatic films, which can reveal changes in vegetation health and soil moisture, among other things.
- Glacier National Park
Citizen Science Opportunities Associated with Panoramic Lookout Photographs
- Locations: Glacier National Park
Anyone can participate in citizen science. You can go to a national park lookout point and take panoramic lookout photos and upload them to a national database. Links are provided to Gigapan tutorials and a citizen science weed project in Glacier National Park. Information about how to set up a photo point in your backyard is also shared.
Fire managers may “prescribe” a treatment for resource benefits or research that includes lighting a fire in an area for various purposes after careful planning and under carefully controlled conditions. Prescribed fire is a planned fire, and is used to meet management objectives. A prescription is a set of conditions that considers safety, weather, and probability of meeting the burn objectives.
- Locations: Grand Canyon National Park
- Offices: Wildland Fire Program
Grand Canyon fire managers saw success in managing lightning-caused wildfires in summer 2014 to achieve resource benefits and burn a fire-adapted ecosystem.
- Apostle Islands National Lakeshore
Prescribed Fire Restores Cultural Landscape at Apostle Islands National Lakeshore
- Locations: Apostle Islands National Lakeshore
During October 2014, wildland firefighters from the National Park Service at Apostle Islands National Lakeshore (NPS) and the Bureau of Indian Affairs Great Lakes Agency partnered to conduct a prescribed fire at Devils Island Light Station. The fire helped maintain the view to and from the light tower, which still serves as a guidepost to lake mariners.
Last updated: August 28, 2018