Grand Teton National Park, 2004 Fire Effects Annual Report

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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 Fire Effects program at Grand Teton National Park is part of an interagency fire management organization in partnership with the USFS Bridger-Teton National Forest. All levels of fire and fuels project monitoring, from reconnaissance to long term vegetation plots, to data analysis, are provided to both agencies. The State of Wyoming Game & Fish Department also works closely with the fire effects program to promote and evaluate habitat improvement projects on federal lands. 2004 was the seventh season for the Grand Teton National Park Fire Effects crew. Four seasonal biological technicians (Stu Osbrack, Clint Foster, Sarah Long, and Kate Cueno) assisted Diane Abendroth in collecting vegetation and fuels data. All were first-year fire effects monitors. In addition, the crew was very fortunate to have assistance from a Forest Service volunteer (Lydia Dixon), as well as habitat biologists from the Wyoming Game & Fish Department (Jill Miller and Jared Rogerson). In 2004, eight new permanent plots were installed, including two in Grand Teton National Park, and six on the Bridger-Teton National Forest. The crew reread 45 permanent plots this season, and removed rebar and tree tags from eight high-elevation whitebark pine FMH plots in the park to reduce conflicts with wilderness values. Photopoints were installed and re-taken on three fires and two prescribed burns. Over 60 pre-treatment Brown’s transects were conducted for mechanical thinning projects. Few traditional FMH plots have been installed this year. This is due to increased pilot sampling of alternative vegetation monitoring methods, which will hopefully provide more definitive results targeting project objectives that require large sample sizes, such as tree seedling and pole density. A summary of some of these trials is included in this report. As new monitoring protocols are developed, the existing FMH plots will continue to be reread for post burn data collection. This year’s burn severity ground truthing was conducted on the 2003 East Table fire on the Bridger-Teton National Forest (60 CBI plots) and the 2003 Blacktail fire on Grand Teton National Park (47 CBI plots). Fall weather did not permit field work on the 2003 Moss Ridge complex, which was postponed until next year. Since 2002, Grand Teton National Park has undertaken a comprehensive vegetation mapping and classification project as part of the NPS Inventory and Monitoring Program. The Fire Effects Crew assisted with this data collection for several weeks in 2004. Funding for this project has been contributed by Fire Management, to expedite the mapping. In addition, Fire Management has coordinated the collection of detailed fuels data that will be used to develop models to predict fire behavior.

Grand Teton National Park, 2004 Fire Effects Annual Report

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