Fire Ecologists Take Alaska Teachers Into a Burned Forest at Denali

In July 2023, for the second year, the National Park Service's Alaska regional fire ecology program worked with teachers from around the state through Project Learning Tree (PLT). Regional fire ecologists Jennifer Barnes and Jennifer McMillan taught part of PLT's annual educator workshop at Denali National Park and Preserve — a continuing-education program for K–12 teachers bringing fire ecology into their classrooms.

Alaska teachers examine the organic duff layer. Jennifer McMillan, NPS.

In the field

Teachers received a PLT activity collection on wildfire and ecosystem change, which the fire ecologists brought to life with Alaska-specific knowledge. On a naturalist hike to the site of the 2002 Horseshoe Fire near park headquarters, they tried standard Park Service field methods for measuring fire effects and talked through:

• the difference between fire severity and fire intensity;
• how climate change may affect fire in Alaska;
• how the spruce bark beetle infestation spreading toward Denali could change fire activity;
• how removing vegetation changes the rooting zone and conditions for the first plants to return after fire;
• how to detect wildlife using burned areas.

Regional fire ecologist Jennifer Barnes explains what tree rings reveal. Jennifer McMillan, NPS.

Back to the classroom

Immersed in a post-fire forest, teachers left ready to share how fire shapes Alaska's ecosystems with students who — as Alaskans — are all affected by fire. The Park Service hopes to continue the partnership and inspire students toward ecology and wildland fire management careers.

Fire ecologists for a day: teachers collect data at a post-fire plot. Jennifer Barnes, NPS.

Project Learning Tree in Alaska is funded by a Wildland Urban Interface grant to the Alaska Natural Resource and Outdoor Education Association and a 2023 Sustainable Forestry Initiative education grant to Alaska Project Learning Tree.

Sources

Based on "NPS regional fire ecologists teach fire science to Alaska educators," National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain.