Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 2005 [Saguaro National Park]

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). A crew of three (two seasonals and myself) conducted 22 plot reads this season. Thirty-six reads were scheduled for 2005. First priority was preburn reads in the Saddle burn unit which was scheduled to burn this year. We were able to find 10 of the 12 QUAR09 plots and six of the seven PILE04 plots. Directions and/or GPS coordinates were sketchy at best for some of the plots which were last read between 1999 and 2001. Due to this inconvenience, we switched to guerrilla travel tactics (off-trail plot travel) in attempts of increasing the probability of finding some of these poorly documented plots. It made for brushy, slow and sometimes painful progress to our destinations but paid off in the discovery of one previously “lost” plot (that after 2+ miles of off-trail travel was found less than 200 meters from a trail). Casual observation noted that the PILE plots seemed to have been more severely burned in the 1994 Rincon fire than the QUAR plots. Second priority was year 01 reads in the Devil’s Bathtub burn unit. All plots were located and read in this unit as I had previously visited these plots. One crewmember assisted our FUM in the Frank Church Wilderness with a WFURB. Another crewmember from 2004 flew back from St. Louis on her own dime to assist us in plot reads for a PP. Saguaro is in the process of finalizing its FMP so in the spirit of teamwork I assisted in the map making, preparation/review & edits/filing of the FMP, EIS, BA, BO, ROD and NOA. To date it has not been finalized but should be soon. It was/is fun. I would recommend it to everybody who hasn’t tried it and can’t wait to do it again. During the season I also assisted the Flagstaff Area Parks with their FMP, collaborated with TNC on a project for the FS, provided I&M with data and a synopsis of the program, assisted a former employee (with FWS now) with data for a fuel model for the Park and wrote an article for the Sky Island Alliance looking at seasonal burning and its effects on structure and composition. I finished the season assisting as a FEMO for a small burn at BANWR. They are looking at the effect of the burn season on invasive woody and exotic species (mesquite and Lehmann lovegrass). All in all it was a pretty relaxed season.

Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 2005 [Saguaro National Park]

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