Why Great Basin National Park Is Thinning Trees: The Boundary Thin

First published in The Midden*, Great Basin National Park's newsletter, Vol. 22, No. 1, Summer 2022. By Julie Long, supervisory biological science technician, and Bryan Hamilton, acting Integrated Resource Management Program manager.*

Rhodes Cabin in 1940, before the Lehman Caves Visitor Center was built. Note how little pinyon and juniper there is. NPS photo.

In October 2021, fire crews started work on the Boundary Thin, a 65-acre project and one of several the park is using to reduce fuels, protect lives and property, and restore native plants and animals. Community members and visitors asked about it; here is why the park is doing it.

The same area in 2022 — note how much the tree cover has grown. NPS photo.

Why cut trees?

To protect buildings from fire. For about a century, land managers kept wildfire out of the park — and research has shown that made fires larger and more dangerous. Without fire, trees spread and built up dense, heavy woody fuel. In the Great Basin, pinyon pine and juniper have increased by more than 150 percent since European colonisation, driving more high-intensity, catastrophic fires. Such megafires kill, devastate landscapes, destroy homes and cause flooding.

Thinning creates a fuel break between the park and private homes, to slow or stop a fire moving up or down the Lehman Creek drainage.

Why it matters for wildlife

Pinyon and juniper compete with grasses and sagebrush for water and sunlight, and without fire they crowd them out.

• Sage grouse depend on sagebrush and are declining as trees encroach.
• Biologists use tree-removal projects like this one to restore native plants and animals such as sage grouse and pygmy rabbits.

Historically, frequent low-intensity fires — started by lightning or by Native Americans, and sometimes called good fires — held trees back and favoured sagebrush and grasses. Removing trees is an important first step toward bringing good fire back to the park.

Keep the conversation going

Questions can go to the park's Integrated Resource Management Program. For further reading, the article points to SageSTEP, a U.S. Geological Survey open-file report (2018-1034), and the Sage Grouse Initiative.

Sources

• National Park Service, Great Basin National Park, "Thinning Project Outreach," The Midden, Vol. 22, No. 1, Summer 2022. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/thinning-project-outreach.htm
• Rewritten in hubnx's own words.