Prescribed Fire Protects Wind Cave National Park’s Headquarters

In October 2022, fire crews burned 1,037 acres near Wind Cave National Park's headquarters in a prescribed fire. The $30,000 project, paid for by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, treated dense and open ponderosa pine forest with a grass understory. Firefighters lit the grass near the headquarters and a nearby private home.

Yellowstone National Park engine crew member Craig Hertz uses a drip torch during the Headquarters prescribed fire. NPS.

Who helped

• National Park Service fire staff from Yellowstone National Park, Theodore Roosevelt National Park and Buffalo National River;
• the Bureau of Indian Affairs, from Pine Ridge, South Dakota;
• the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, from Crescent Lake, Nebraska;
• the Black Hills National Forest;
• an engine crew from Oelrichs, South Dakota.

Why burn

According to park superintendent Leigh Welling, burns like this reduce the buildup of fuel that could feed a catastrophic wildfire threatening park buildings and the neighboring home. The fire also had other goals:

• slow the spread of young ponderosa pines onto the prairie, restoring the balance between forest and grassland;
• let more water seep into the cave, which lies beneath parts of the burn area.

A firefighter lights fuels around a park building inside the burn area. NPS.

A program since 1972

The burn continues a prescribed fire program that began in 1972. Sections of the park are burned under favorable conditions to mimic natural fires, keeping the balance between forest and prairie, clearing dead fuel and rejuvenating native prairie grasses. Before each burn, managers weigh:

• humidity and fuel moisture;
• wind speed and direction;
• short- and long-range weather patterns.

If the required conditions aren't met on the planned day, the fire is postponed.

The area around a park building after the burn. NPS.

Results

Fire ecologists will check preset monitoring plots over the coming years to judge how well the fire worked, but early signs are that it met many of its goals. Welling thanked the outside agencies and said the burn cut the fuel load — and the risk of a catastrophic wildfire — in a critical area next to the park's developed area.

The project was funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law's wildland fire provisions, signed on November 15, 2021.

Sources

Based on "Several partners help protect Wind Cave National Park Headquarters area," Wind Cave National Park, National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain.