Southern Appalachian/Piedmont Fire Effects Monitoring Team, Fire Effects/Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 2011
Author unknown. Southern Appalachian/Piedmont Fire Effects Monitoring Team, Fire Effects/Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 2011
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 Southern Appalachian/Piedmont fire effects/fire ecology team provided support for eleven NPS units in the Southeast Region during 2011, in addition to supporting a busy wildfire season in the South and the ongoing Gulf Oil Spill cleanup. Aside from a substantial number of plot visits to our network parks (Table 1), the team worked with the Natchez Trace and Shenandoah crews to complete high priority plot-work outside our network and outside the region. As in years past, we also contributed to monitoring efforts across agency boundaries, working with US Forest Service fire managers to help achieve regional monitoring goals of the Southern Blue Ridge Fire Learning Network.Though wind and smoke concerns resulted in a tough year for completing prescribed burns in our part of the region, the crew participated in the completion of at least 11 prescribed burns, including a significant false start and the eventual burning of the 2000-acre Bald Knob unit at Big South Fork NRRA. Other 2011 prescribed fire highlights included another successful fall burning campaign in Cades Cove (GRSM), and the reintroduction of fire into the Saddleback unit at King’s Mountain NMP.The fire effects team roster remained stable for 2011, and all crew members continued to provide operational support for local and national incidents (Table 2). Aside from the highlights listed in Table 2, each team member contributed to the management of an interesting fire season at our home park. Far and away the most interesting fire event of the year was the Beard Cane Gap wildfire that started from a lightning strike on July 25, and lasted until September 6. This fire occurred within a very remote area that had been prescribed-burned in spring 2008, and quickly moved onto Short Mountain, which was part of a large swath that was severely impacted by the historic tornado outbreak of April 27, 2011. Extremely difficult to access, this fire was managed for resource objectives, and achieved a final size of 316 acres. More details about this fascinating event, and about the tremendous impacts of the tornado on the long-term fire effects monitoring program in the Smokies, can be found in the GRSM section of this report.