Wildland-Urban Interface Fuels Management

National Park Service

This wildland-urban interface fuels management environmental assessment evaluates a new firemanagement strategy that would be appended to the Big Thicket National Preserve fire management program. This project, located in the 703-acre Hickory Creek Unit of the preserve, would reduce fuels on a 290-acre treatment area, including that portion of the boundary that is adjacent to the Wildwood Community. This action would protect approximately 600 private homes. Fuel reduction would be needed prior to re-instituting the use of prescribed bums in accordance with the 1998 fire management plan for the preserve. The action evaluated in this environmental assessment would reduce fuel loads to create a buffer strip with low fuel availability between the interior of the preserve and adjacent private landowners. The 21acre buffer strip, along with the spot treatment of approximately 150 additional acres, would provide increased protection to human life and property in the Wildwood Community and would be consistent with the National Park Service (NPS) goal of habitat restoration.The alternative of continued management/no action (Alternative A) and three action alternatives were evaluated. All of the action alternatives would reduce the volume of woody vegetation within the treatment area. The alternatives would differ in the methods used to achieve the fuel reduction. Treatments associated with the alternatives would include targeted applications of herbicide, use of mechanized equipment to cut and chip vegetation into small pieces, or both chemical and mechanical treatment. The goal would be to return the fuel levels to a condition where prescribed fire, a previously approved action,can be re-instituted as a routine vegetation management practice within the Hickory Creek Unit Alternative B (the preferred action) would use a one-time targeted herbicide application, followed by onetime mechanical thinning. The treatment area would include 21 acres that comprise a 200-foot-wide strip along the boundary, with an additional 150 acres of brush to be spot thinned. Alternative C would involve mechanical thinning only, with chipping and scattering of woody debris over the treatment area. Alternative D would use chemical thinning only. Alternative C and D would treat the same area as the preferred action. None of the action alternatives would have major environmental consequences. In the key area of firecontrol, the proposed action (Alternative B) would be beneficial compared to the alternative of continued current management/no action.

Wildland-Urban Interface Fuels Management

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