National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy Success Story

Redwood Canyon Prescribed Fire: Celebrating the History while Planning for the Future
Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks
Cohesive Strategy - Maintain and Restore Landscapes
2011

Redwood Canyon holds a special place in the fire management history of the National Park Service. This treasured landscape is home to one of the largest giant sequoia groves in the world and is also the birthplace of prescribed fire in the western United States. Starting in 1963, researchers discovered that giant sequoias adapt to fire and use fire for regeneration. Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks began using prescribed fires in 1968.

This unit was last burned in 1977. At the time, fire managers believed that this area burned too hot. However, an extensive crop of sapling sequoias demonstrated that these trees thrive in a relatively hot fire that opens the canopy, thins competing vegetation, and releases the tiny seeds to the nutrient-rich ash and mineral soil below. The parks’ fire management program learned about fire ecology and restoration in the Sierra Nevada in these years.

Historically, natural fires occurred in sequoia forests approximately once every 10-15 years. Therefore, this area had not yet returned to its natural fire cycle. In fact, the crop of sequoias from the 1977 burn had grown quickly in the sunny area of the grove, leading to over competition for water and other nutrients. The result was stunted sequoia saplings densely grown together to create a continuous fuel source.

For fire staff, the challenge was to bring fire back to the grove, reintroducing this natural process that historically thinned the forest, removing some sequoias making the survivors healthier. The heavy build up of fuels in the sequoias could burn all the 1977 regeneration if active fire was established.

This year’s significant snowpack and cool spring were part of the solution. The 626-acre unit was completed on the cool end of the prescription. In fact, cold and foggy days prevented approximately 100 acres of the unit from being completed during the initial ignitions. Firefighters also used deliberate ignition techniques, including starting fire at the top of the ridge and slowly backing it down, to encourage the fire to spread downhill. This prevented uphill spread that would have lead to greater fire intensity and greater mortality in the sequoias.

The fire slowly smoldered and crept through the forest throughout the summer. Many parts of the forest remained unusually wet this year. The result is a low intensity fire that spread through the areas of the 1977 regeneration, reducing the fuels and removing some of the trees.

The parks have observed 40-50% fuels reduction within the 1977 regeneration as well as in other areas of the unit. This was the targeted goal of this project. This sequoia grove is now at lower risk of an unwanted fire and the forest will be more open and sunny, as should be with a Sierra Nevada forest

Tom Nichols, NPS Chief of Fire and Aviation Management, was on hand for both the 1977 burn and this year’s project. “It’s a credit to the firefighters who completed the 2011 Redwood Canyon Prescribed Fire,” he said. “It required skill and finesse to complete this project with such a successful outcome. The sequoias that were the product of the 1977 burn will be healthier and stronger from this year’s fire, and some of these trees may now grow to maturity.”

Contact

Deb Schweizer, Fire Education Specialist
Email: Debra_Schweizer@nps.gov
Phone: (559) 565-3703

Keywords: Treasured Landscapes, Fire Ecology and Restoration