Fire Management Plan for the Bureau of Land Management El Malpais National Conservation Area and National Park Service El Malpais National Monument, New Mexico

National Park Service & Bureau of Land Management

The fire management policies of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and National Park Service (NPS), Department of Interior, support agency resource management goals. An overriding resource goal is the restoration or maintenance of natural ecosystems while providing for firefighter and public safety, protection of natural and cultural resources, and protection of human developments from unwanted wildland fire. This Joint Fire Management Plan (referred to as "the Plan" or "Joint Plan") for the El Malpais National Conservation Area (NCA) and El Malpais National Monument (NM) has the following program direction. " To guide a joint agency decision-making processes, in which safety, social, political, and resource values are evaluated and appropriate management response strategies are identified for wildland fires in all Fire Management Units while providing for a full suppression response strategy for all unwanted wildland fires. " To provide a framework for hazard fuels management strategies and for restoring wildland fire back into fire-dependent ecosystems. " To provide an interagency platform with which to cooperate more fully in planning and implementing a wildland fire program across agency boundaries. Program operations included in the Plan are preparedness, prevention, suppression, fuels management, and wildland fire use to achieve resource benefits (accomplish objectives). Applicable resource goals and objectives are taken from approved agency resource and general management plans. The Plan is unique in that it is truly interagency in purpose, scope, objectives, and guidelines. It integrates those areas where policies and agency goals coincide and allows those program elements that are agency-specific to be integrated as well. Where any policy differences may emerge, there is provision in the Plan for a joint agency forum approach whereby appropriate and timely communications are fostered and consensus reached. The Plan is organized to combine the latest scientific knowledge, including regional and local studies with a hierarchy of policy direction from Departmental and Agency to the Federal Wildland and Prescribed Fire Management Policy (2001) to accomplish resource and fire management goals and objectives. It is written to be understood and implemented by BLM and NPS fire and resource management staffs and is primarily operational in nature. Compliance requirements with the guidelines contained in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) have been satisfied through development of an Environmental Assessment (EA), which is appended to this plan. These requirements ensure a prudent assessment and balance between a federal action and any potential effects of that action, leading to consensus between fire managers, agency resource specialists, and the public regarding this interagency fire program. Any constraints or limitations imposed on the fire management program are also included.