Fire Effects & Ecology Annual Report: Barrens to Bayous Fire Effects Monitoring Network, 2011

Author unknown; Burton, Jesse

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). The year two-thousand-eleven presented challenges due to weather and tight budgets. Because of an unusually wet spring, many of the prescribed fire operations planned for the spring season were delayed and eventually abandoned for this calendar year in our Network’s Parks. Only three of the eight planned parks were able to conduct normal prescribed fire operations. The crew provided qualified FEMOs for all operations within the Barrens to Bayous geographical response area this past year. Members of the Barrens to Bayous fire effects team actively participated in approximately twenty prescribed fires this last year. In addition to supporting prescribed fire operations, we provided support to multiple wildfire incidents in the Southern Area. Roles served on suppression incidents included: FFT2, FFT1(T), EMTB, and HECM. Carol Fields detailed with the Southeast Regional Helicopter as a Helicopter Crewmember during the prescribed fire season, and was dispatched with that resource to the West Texas IA incident. Falkey served as an EMT(B) and Burton served as an FFT1(T) on the West Texas IA in 2012. Rotter was dispatched to the Ogeechee Wildfire in Georgia as a FFT2. The crew completed 50 annual reads, 23 post-burn reads, and installed 5 new monitoring plots for a total of 78 FMH plot or modified plot reads, roughly 40% of the network’s inventory. Restrictions in the FY2011 fire effects travel budget constricted travel to some of the network’s most remote plots, especially when there were only one or two plots due for a monitoring read. This resulted in a roughly 20% of scheduled monitoring plots to not be annually monitored in FY2011. The majority of these unread plots were within the Natchez Trace Parkway (exotic monitoring) and Vicksburg National Historic Park (photo monitoring). As of January 2012, all datasheets collected in 2011 have been entered and the majority of the data has been checked for errors.

Fire Effects & Ecology Annual Report: Barrens to Bayous Fire Effects Monitoring Network, 2011

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