Fire Effects Report for King's Mountain National Military Park [2004]

Mcdaniel, Virginia

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). Over the past five years the Southern Appalachian Fire-Effects Team (based out of Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Gatlinburg, TN) has installed 23 FMH (Fire Monitoring Handbook) plots in Kings Mountain National Military Park (Table 1). These plots were established in prescribed burn units and were stratified by monitoring type. A monitoring type is a major fuel-vegetation complex or vegetation association subject to a particular burn prescription (Fire Monitoring Handbook 2001). Four plots are in the blackjack oak (Quercus marilandica) monitoring type and 19 are in the chestnut oak (Q. montana) monitoring type. A draft description of these monitoring types can be found in Appendix 4A and 4B. In previous years, the Kings Mountain data summary has been a small section of a comprehensive annual report. Data analysis has included fuel reduction and pole-sized tree mortality with minimal discussion. While this report will provide more discussion of the results and our progress towards achieving resource management objectives, it is important to remember that we have monitored only a short time, and the restoration of a fire regime is a long-term process. Current resource management objectives are a best guess at the correct path to take in restoring this ecosystem to its historic structure and composition. Trends we notice one-year post-burn, may or may not reflect what we will see ten years from now. However, discussion of these data is essential because it is the first step towards adaptive management.