Southern Appalachian Fire Effects Team, Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 2004

Author unknown

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). Given the funding constraints that cut two seasonal and one permanent employee from the Southern Appalachian Fire Effects Team, and the late hire of our fourth permanent member, we accomplished an impressive amount. Through the winter and spring we assisted the Fire Use Module with 8 prescribed burns in four parks (Mammoth Cave NP, Kings Mountain NMP, Congaree Swamp NP, and Great Smoky Mountains NP). These burns enabled us to work on FEMO and Squad Boss task books and assist the FUM in leadership positions. We completed 17 post-burn reads (14 forest plots and 3 grass plots) during this period. During the summer and fall we completed 22 01yr01 reads and 5 01yr05 reads in three parks (Congaree Swamp NP, Kings Mountain NMP and Great Smoky Mountains NP). We initiated monitoring in two new parks: Cumberland Gap NHS (4 forest installs) and Big South Fork NRRA (3 grass installs). We assisted researchers from Middle Tennessee University with a table mountain pine study and the Natchez Trace Fire Effects Team in monitoring at Mammoth Cave NP and Little River Canyon National Preserve. The lead and assistant lead helped the Zion Fire Effects Team re-read 16 brush plots and 1 ponderosa pine plot on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and the assistant lead and crew member assisted the North Cascades Fire Effects Team for two weeks each. The Fire Ecologist and Lead Monitor attended the Statistical Base for FEAT training in Colorado in May. The Fire Ecologist also attended the Bats and Forests Symposium and Workshop in Arkansas and a Fire Regime and Condition Class (FRCC) training in Maryland. The entire crew helped teach the monitoring section of Rx-310 (Introduction to Fire Effects) in Black Mountain, NC in November. The Fire Ecologist and Lead Monitor began analyzing the Smokies seven years of data and put together presentations for three conferences: Ecological Society of America (ESA), Southern Appalachian Man and the Biosphere (SAMAB), and All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI).

Southern Appalachian Fire Effects Team, Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 2004

Collections