Final Yosemite Fire Management Plan Released

Yosemite National Park Superintendent Michael J. Tollefson announced the release of the Final Yosemite Fire Management Plan Environmental Impact Statement (Final FMP) this week.

The Final FMP guides the implementation of a complex fire management program. The program includes wildland fire suppression, wildland fire used to achieve natural and cultural resource benefits, fire prevention, prescribed fire, fire ecology research, and the use of mechanical methods to reduce and thin vegetation in and around communities.

One goal of the program is to reduce the threat of wildland fire to public safety and to the park´s wildland urban interface communities as well as to its natural and cultural resources. Another goal is to return the influence of natural fire to park ecosystems so that they are restored to, and maintained in, as natural condition as possible.

The preferred alternative of the Final FMP proposes to reduce risk to park wildland urban interface communities within six to eight years, and to restore park ecosystems within 15 to 20 years. Some of the work which will be done to reduce the risk of unwanted wildland fire in and adjacent to wildland urban interface communities will involve mechanical methods. The primary methods to reduce wildland fire risk and to restore park ecosystems, however, will be prescribed and wildland fire.

The EPA notice of filing has not yet occurred. Once the EPA notice of filing is published in the federal register, the document enters a 30 day no-action period required by the National Environmental Policy Act. The Pacific West Regional Director may sign a record of decision at the end of the 30 day no-action period.

To request a hard copy or CD of the Final FMP, write to Superintendent, Attn: Final FMP, PO Box 577, Yosemite CA, 95389, email YOSE_planning@nps.gov, call (209) 379-1365, or visit www.nps.gov/yose/planning/fire.