A Native Fire Crew and the Park Service Protect a Remote Alaska Allotment

A lull in Alaska's wildfire activity in summer 2014 finally gave the Tanana Chiefs Conference (TCC) Fire Crew and the National Park Service's Alaska Region Eastern Area Fire Management Program the chance to finish a fuels project in Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve — one that busy fire seasons had put off for several years.

Staff prepare the NPS fire boat in Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve (NPS / Yasunori Matsui).

The crew

The TCC hand crew is made up mostly of Alaska Native tribal members. Supported mainly through cooperative agreements with the State of Alaska, it fights wildland fires and carries out fuel-reduction work in the Upper Tanana region of Interior Alaska, and takes on other projects, like this one, as time allows. The Park Service and TCC signed a cooperative agreement in 2012; 2014 was their first chance to work together.

"We are glad it worked out to use the TCC crew, as this project is part of a national initiative to use local crews to protect local assets or values at risk to wildfire," said Jason Devcich, assistant fire management officer for the Eastern Area Fire Management Program.

The job

The target was the Biederman Allotment, a remote 160-acre property surrounded by national preserve land. Getting there took three NPS boats and a Type 3 helicopter to ferry three NPS fire staff, 19 TCC firefighters and their supplies.

• The crew built a 50-foot shaded fuel break on park land around the allotment, cutting spruce trees and brush and pruning the lower limbs of standing trees up to six feet.
• They worked only where fuel conditions called for it, creating defensible space around the allotment.
• Three 16-hour days of cutting in the nearly 5-acre treatment area produced 237 brush piles to be burned later, and left several cords of firewood on site for public use.

"While the NPS fire staff provided logistical supplies and coordination, TCC provided the skilled sawyers and leadership, making it a successful partnership," Devcich said.

TCC Fire Crew supervisor James Ludecker thanked the Eastern Area program for the chance to work side by side with NPS staff toward a shared goal — using local crews to protect identified values at risk — credited the Park Service's professionalism for the project's success, and said the crew would welcome future partnerships.

Sources

• National Park Service, Alaska Region: "National Park Service, Native Crew Join Forces to Protect Values at Risk." The TCC supervisor's remarks are paraphrased here.
• Words on this page from people and organisations outside the federal government are paraphrased; rewritten in hubnx's own words.