Yellowstone National Park Fire Monitoring Plan
Smith B and Page J. 2023. Yellowstone National Park Fire Monitoring Plan. National Park Service
The Yellowstone Fire Ecology Program’s primary purposes are to provide scientific data to determine if planned fire, unplanned fire, and fuel treatment objectives are being met and to gather data to assist with management decisions. To accomplish this, the monitoring program collects plot based data on vegetation and fuel conditions as well as weather, fire behavior, and fuel moisture data for ongoing wildfires and fuels treatments as part of the adaptive management process. A Fire Monitoring Plan is required for all National Park Service units applying prescribed fire, managing wildfire for multiple benefits, or completing fuel treatments. While this document is a requirement for Yellowstone’s Wildland Fire program, it also serves as a guide for Yellowstone’s Fire Ecology program. Through the years, many different types of fire monitoring plots with varying protocols have been installed in Yellowstone. This Fire Monitoring Plan is an attempt to put all of the different protocols and monitoring types into one document to assist with data management and quality control, and to provide guidance on what, how, and when fire ecology monitoring will occur within the Park. Fire effects monitoring data within Yellowstone are collected to inform fire management decisions, and these data are a part of an adaptive management process. Fire effects monitoring data help inform fire managers if specific fuel treatment or fire objectives are being met, and if objectives are not being met, the data can help inform and facilitate management changes. General goals for the management of resources in Yellowstone National Park (Yellowstone, Park), including wildland fire management, are detailed in the 1998 Yellowstone National Park Resource Management Plan (RMP). Specific goals for managing wildland fire are established in the 2014 Yellowstone Fire Management Plan (FMP). This document, the Yellowstone Fire Monitoring Plan, is a mandatory appendix of the Fire Management Plan. Two accessory documents, the 2003 National Park Service (NPS) Fire Effects Monitoring Handbook (FMH) and the 2019 Reference Manual 18 (RM-18), provide general guidance for fire effects monitoring in the NPS.
- Type
- Administrative
- Authors
- Smith, Becky; Page, Jessica
- Date of Issue
- 2023-05-10
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- FIEC , YELL
- Keywords
- CBI, FFI, Fire Ecology, Fire Effects, FMH, Fuel, Fuel Treatments, Hazard Fuel, Monitoring, Unplanned Fire, Wildfire, Yellowstone National Park
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Landscapes | Fire and Fuel Dynamics | Fire and Fuel Dynamics
Other versions
See also
- Yellowstone Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 1997
- Yellowstone Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 1998
- Yellowstone Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 1999
- Yellowstone Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 2000
- Yellowstone Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 2001
- Yellowstone Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 2002
- Yellowstone Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 2003
- Yellowstone Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 2004
- Yellowstone Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 2005
- Yellowstone Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 2006
- Yellowstone Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 2007
- Yellowstone Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 2008
- Yellowstone Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 2009
- Yellowstone Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 2010
- Yellowstone Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 2011
- Yellowstone Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 2012
- Yellowstone Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 2013
- Yellowstone Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 2014
- Yellowstone Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 2015
- Yellowstone Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 2016
- Yellowstone Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 2017
- Yellowstone Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 2018
- Yellowstone National Park FFI Fire Effects Monitoring Data
- Yellowstone Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 2019
- Yellowstone Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 2020
- Yellowstone Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 2021
- Yellowstone Fire Ecology Annual Report: Calendar Year 2022
- Yellowstone National Park FFI Fire Effects Monitoring Data