Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 2005 [Natchez Trace Parkway]
Author unknown. Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 2005 [Natchez Trace Parkway]
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). In March of 2005, NATR welcomed two new fire effects monitors- Brad Weisshaupt and Ed Hentcelt. These folks came to NATR with a combination of experience and education that has turned out to be a real benefit to the program. Unfortunately, lead fire effects monitor Andrew Ruth left NATR to pursue a doctoral degree in Alaska. Since May, the NATR crew has been functioning with no lead monitor. During 2005, the biggest accomplishment for the NATR Fire Ecology program was the conversion of FMH to FEATDesktop. All parks have been converted to the new software program, and the fire effects monitors and fire ecologist alike spent much time learning to enter, sort, and summarize data in FEAT. Another big accomplishment for the fire ecology folks included the creation of a fuels map for the Parkway. This map is needed not only for the Parkway but also for Fire Program Analysis (FPA). Many weeks were spent digitizing polygons in ArcGIS! Two new parks came online for NATR in 2005- Stones River National Battlefield and Russell Cave National Monument. A 30-acre prairie restoration burn was conducted at STRI, and NATR personnel were involved in the burning as well as the monitoring. In 2005, each park in which the NATR fire effects crew works was provided with a report summarizing the fire effects data to date. These reports were subsequently posted to the fire ecology intranet site. By facilitating communication between the ecologist, the park and the operational employees, it is possible to begin the iterative process of adaptive management. Other steps toward adaptive management included increased collaboration during the prescribed burn planning process. In 2006, it is hoped that this process will be extended to include formal presentation of the monitoring data to the respective parks. This report does not include Table 1, Monitoring Results, at this time. An updated version including the results will be available by mid-February.