Glacier National Park, Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 2012

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A summary of fire ecology activities and program information for the Park/network including fire effects plot workload, staffing, management objectives and monitoring results, and planning, fire monitoring, communications, and research. Also included are staff accomplishments/areas of focus, future program direction and other optional information (e.g. data analysis graphics or presentations, annual highlights, publications, program challenges, unique solutions to problems, collaboration, photographs of monitoring/fire activities, and suggestions on FFI). The summer started off extremely moist. The winter’s snowpack was 125% of normal on June 1st and was followed by a West Glacier record (1949-present) for total June precipitation (8.03”/average is 3.4”). July followed with above average moisture, and as is common in the Northern Rockies, the weather pattern completely switched, and we experienced an extremely dry August and September. We received less than 25% of average moisture over those two months. ERC’s hovered around the 90 percentile from about August 15th until early October. Not surprisingly with all the early moisture, it was a very slow year for fire starts, but one, the Avalanche Fire started on September 1, and kept us busy for over six weeks. It was initially aggressively suppressed because it was in a location that was in proximity to the very popular Avalanche Visitor Complex and it could have easily spotted into the Going to the Sun Road corridor. It was located in very steep and rocky terrain that was not conducive to total control. After a significant rain/snow event on day six, park management decided to cease suppression efforts and the fire was closely monitored until it finally went out in early November. This involved numerous site visits to update the perimeter, collect fuel samples, and monitor fire activity. We also heavily supported two major SAR events, one each in July and August, each of which kept most of the fire staff busy for about one week. We supplied searchers and members to the Type III Incident Command Team. We had two prescribed burns planned, one in Glacier and one at Big Hole, but both were cancelled due to the very high fire indices throughout September and early October.

Glacier National Park, Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 2012

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