Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 2005 [Northeast Region]
Author unknown. Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 2005 [Northeast Region]
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). This summer, the Mountains-to-the-Sea Fire Effects Monitoring Crew collected data at five parks, participated in several prescribed burns across the NPS Northeast Region, and completed the conversion of old data and data collection from FMH to FEAT. Data were collected at Antietam, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania, Richmond, Saratoga, and Shenandoah. As part of a cooperative manpower-exchange effort, the FEM crew assisted the Shenandoah Vegetation Monitoring crew to collect post-burn data on 40 vegetation transects at Big Meadows, a resource management prescribed burn unit at Shenandoah. In addition, the seasonal Fire Monitor assisted with pre-burn data collection on four non-FMH plots and with burn-day monitoring at Cape Cod National Seashore, which has its own monitoring program. The Fire Ecologist and Lead Monitor participated in eight prescribed burns conducted at Antietam, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania, and Richmond, and the seasonal Fire Monitor participated in the research burn at Cape Cod. The Lead Monitor was instrumental in testing the new FEAT software, single-handedly converted all FMH data to FEAT, and presented a poster, Using Fire Effects Monitoring for Adaptive Management, at the George Wright Conference in Philadelphia in March.