Wildfire Hazard Assessment: Acadia National Park and surrounding Mount Desert Island, Maine

Charpentier, Jessica

From the executive summary: "Federal and state fire managers have a critical need for a general baseline geospatial assessment of wildfire risk that identifies areas of paticularily high fuel loading. The projected increase in population, pressure for land use change, uncertainties associated with climate change, and declining State and Federal budgets will result in more complex fire suppression strategies. Fire management programs must continue to operate strategically and efficiently to meet this paradigm. The main objectives of this study were to: identify areas in Acadia National Park and the surrounding landscape with high wildfire risk; identify where hazard mitigation practices would be most effective in reducing wildfire risk; to focus resources in the areas of greatest need of fuel reduction. Outside of the 1947 fire boundary, the wildfire risk is generally very high to high with small pockets of moderate to low risk. Within 1947 fire boundary, the wildfire risk is primarily moderate to low with small areas of high to very high risk which is primarily due to topography. The wildfire hazard maps presented are an accurate broad scale representation of the wildfire hazard across Acadia National Park. Due to variances in the reliability of the input data, the scale at which this analysis was conducted, and the range of fuels present throughout the area, conclusions based on the findings of this wildfire risk assessment should be carefully considered at the prescribed fire burn unit scale. Mount Desert Island has and will continue to experience a marked increase in human development and visitation thereby increasing the likelihood of human-caused ignitions. This coupled with the uncertainties of climate change may significantly increase the vulnerability of wildfire occurrence across the Park."