Fire and Fuels in Arkansas's National Parks: What the 2024 Infrastructure Money Did

Five national park sites in Arkansas share one fire program, the Arkansas Park Fire Management Zone: Pea Ridge National Military Park, Buffalo National River, Hot Springs National Park, Fort Smith National Historic Site and Arkansas Post National Memorial. In fiscal year 2024, money from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law let it take on a large share of its wildfire risk.

Prescribed fire reducing fuel around park buildings at Arkansas Post National Memorial. Photo by the National Park Service

2024 by the numbers

What it protects

The work targeted the land that matters most if fire comes: park buildings and infrastructure, key wildlife habitat, neighboring private land, power lines and transportation corridors — while making the ecosystems themselves more resilient.

• Prescribed fire was the main tool for improving forest and grassland health.
• Mechanical thinning added resilience where fire alone couldn't do the job.
• Cultural resource surveys on foot mapped historic and archeological sites so that future burns and fuel treatments protect them.

Did it work?

Several of the year's twelve wildfires behaved better because they ran into land that had already been treated — evidence that working ahead of fire pays off.

Sources

Based on "Transformative land management at NPS' Arkansas Park Zone," National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain.