Weather conditions permitting, the National Park Service plans to implement prescribed fire projects totaling about 350 acres between April 9 and May 15,2007 in the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Each burn will vary in size from 5 to 117 acres and will be completed during daylight hours. Prescribed fire, a fire started by park managers for a specific purpose, is an important tool used to protect, preserve and maintain healthy prairie ecosystems.
National Park Service policy stresses managing fire for resource benefit, not just suppressing it. This means understanding fire’s relation to the landscape, planning for accidental wildfire and using prescribed fire as a land management tool. In support of the national policy, a fundamental goal of the park’s fire program is to protect lives, property, and resources while restoring fire as a natural and dynamic process to maintain healthy ecosystems.
Research has shown that native grassland diversity and forage quality deteriorate when fire is absent for extended periods. Fire transforms dead plant material into soil nutrients and increases the amount of nitrogen fixing microorganisms, encouraging plant and animal diversity across the landscape. The wide variety of plants and animals people expect to see in national parks is partially the result of past fire activity.
Prescribed fires are carefully conducted under an identified and approved prescription of conditions. Factors such as air temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction are all considered in establishing the acceptable conditions for conducting a prescribed fire. For general information on the role of fire in natural systems, the public is encouraged to view a temporary exhibit at the South Unit Visitor Center in Medora. This exhibit will be on display until approximately May 1. For those people with access to the internet, an excellent source of fire information specific to Theodore Roosevelt National Park and the Northern Great Plains can be found at http://www.nps.gov/ngpfire/thro.htm.
Park staff anticipates the main park road will remain open while the burning is taking place. On the day of a burn local fire departments and law enforcement agencies will be notified, and signs will be placed along the road and at park visitor centers notifying the public of the burn. Due to weather constraints, no specific dates have been set for these burns. Once favorable weather forecasts are obtained dates will be chosen. Assistance from National Park Service units and other federal land management agencies from North and South Dakota will be utilized to safely carry out the prescribed burns.
