Two Alaska fire crews thin the trees around Wrangell-St. Elias headquarters

Alaska has an average of 460 fires a year, which burn nearly one million acres. Fire is a natural part of the boreal forest, but protecting buildings and fire-sensitive resources is an important part of the National Park Service fire program. In 2020 two crews teamed up to do that at Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve's headquarters and visitor center in Copper Center.

The Eastern and Western Area fire management crews thin and remove trees around the park headquarters. NPS photo.

What a shaded fuel break does

A shaded fuel break reduces the risk of crown fire by widening the space between spruce trees and removing ladder fuels. The remaining trees keep the ground cooler and so limit the growth of flammable understory plants such as grasses and shrubs. Taking advantage of reduced visitation and a relatively quiet 2020 visitor season, the Alaska NPS Eastern and Western Area fuels crews worked together to improve the break around the headquarters.

Woody debris was hauled off site to be burned or used as firewood. NPS photo.

The 2020 crew

The Eastern Area crew began in late May and the Western Area crew joined in early July. The nine men and women thinned and limbed trees around the headquarters and visitor center and hauled the debris away to be burned later or used as firewood. They were also ready to respond to fires over the warm Fourth of July weekend in the Copper River Basin. Because of COVID-19 the two crews camped separately, drove assigned vehicles and kept camps and equipment sanitized. The source adds that they enjoyed fresh Copper River salmon while camping along the Gulkana River, and that crew members gained chainsaw experience through mentoring by their leaders and fellow crew members.

Trees were thinned around the headquarters to protect structures from wildfire. NPS photo.

A long-term plan

The project belongs to a fuel mitigation plan for the headquarters area that began in 2009. The NPS fire ecology program monitored the treatment area before and one year after the first treatment in 2010, and measured it again in 2015. The data show how well the treatment works, how vegetation is regrowing, and whether invasive weeds or other impacts appear, and they decide whether more treatment is needed. They have already led to an additional treatment that increased the spacing of tree crowns, removed standing dead aspen and dealt with regrowth from the first one.

Thinning the trees reduces the risk of wildfire while keeping a shaded area around the building. NPS photo.

The fourteen acres of completed treatment at the headquarters protect the infrastructure in case of wildfire and helped the region meet its fuels targets for Fiscal Year 2020. The project was partly supported by funding from the Operation of the National Park System program for implementing active forest management to protect park infrastructure.

Sources

• National Park Service, "East Meets West: Active Fuels Management Collaboration in Wrangell-St. Elias" (https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/ak-wrst-fuels-management.htm); rewritten in hubnx's own words.