Fire Management Planning

Denali National Park and Preserve (the Park) is currently updating its Fire Management Plan (FMP) with guidance from federal wildland fire policy. The purpose of an FMP is to establish management goals and actions. It also outlines how to make decisions about wildland fire and when. The FMP updates include clarifying terminology, refining fuels management objectives, and aligning the fire management program with the goals of the National Cohesive Strategy:

• Resilient Landscapes – Landscapes, regardless of jurisdictional boundaries are resilient to fire, insect, disease, invasive species and climate change disturbances, in accordance with management objectives.
• Fire Adapted Communities – Human populations and infrastructure are as prepared as possible to receive, respond to, and recover from wildland fire.
• Safe, Effective, Risk-based Wildfire Response – All jurisdictions participate in making and implementing safe, effective, efficient risk-based wildfire management decisions.

Within the Park, natural wildfire is utilized as an effective resource management tool. The Park’s General Management Plan states that “the fire management program goal is to protect human life, property and significant resources while allowing fire to fulfill its role in the ecosystem” (DENA N-520.001).

Fuel Management Planning

One of the main components of the Park’s FMP is the fuels management program, the primary goal of which is to reduce unnatural fuel buildup in areas that are at high risk for a future wildfire. Fuel reduction is the removal of excess plant matter (branches, shrubbery, dead and down material) via mechanized or manually operated tools. It is also done in preparation of prescribed fire treatments. Many fuels projects are designed to consider adaptive management practices ranging in scale from site-specific to landscape-level and achieve resource benefits and protection benefits simultaneously.

Though fire has a role in Alaskan ecosystems, climate change is a causing fire to become even more prominent and widespread. Denali's resilient landscapes are shaped by natural processes. As climate induced changes in fire regimes may erode the resiliency of plant communities and other features sensitive to wildfire events, we may refine our approach to achieving desired conditions through adaptive management. By using the best available science and technology and adhering to adaptive management principles, the Park can make more informed decisions about how, when, and where wildfire may be restored and reintroduced to the landscape for maximum resource benefit.

 

Fire Adapted Communities

Denali National Park is collaborating with Denali Borough and McKinley Village on Community Wildfire Protection Plan efforts (CWPP). These plans are developed by local communities with assistance from state and federal agencies to outline activities and treatments that will protect infrastructure and assess community preparedness. This can include community workshops and education, hazardous fuels reduction, and risk assessments or mitigation plans.
A Fire Adapted Community (FAC) is a “human community consisting of informed and prepared citizens collaboratively planning and taking action to safely coexist with wildland fire.” More fully, a FAC is a knowledgeable, engaged community where actions of residents and agencies in relation to infrastructure, buildings, landscaping, and the surrounding ecosystem lessen the need for extensive protection actions and enable the community to safely accept fire as part of the surrounding landscape.

A successful FAC approach has the potential to save lives, homes and communities, and millions of dollars in suppression costs annually, while allowing beneficial ecological processes of fire to take place (NWCG, 2023). Creating a FAC is a part of the National Cohesive Strategy to keep communities safer during a wildfire event.

More Information:

• Learn more on our Managing Fire and Fuels page
• Community Partners
• Working with Denali's Neighbors Towards Becoming a Fire-Adapted Community