USFWS
Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge
Alaska Region   

Icon of Blue Goose Compass. Click on the compass to view a map of the refuge (pdf)

 

Fire Management

The Role of Natural Fires

Flooding and wildland fires have created a distinct mosaic of plant communities on the refuge. Fire is critical in maintaining healthy wildlife populations. The Yukon Flats boreal forest is an excellent example of a fire-dependent ecosystem. This ecosystem, known as a “fire disclimax,” or an ecosystem that does not reach a climax state due to disturbance by fire, results from:

  • low precipitation
  • high summer temperatures
  • presence of highly flammable fuel types
  • high incidence of lightning in summer (as many as 2,000 strikes in a 24-hour period)

Lightning is the most frequent source of natural ignition for wildland fires on the Yukon Flats and surrounding areas. The Yukon Flats is likely the most fire-prone region of Alaska. Individual fires commonly burn several hundred thousand acres. The entire Yukon Flats area is subject to repetitive but irregular, long-term cycles of burning and regeneration. The map (pdf) showing the total area burned by all recorded fires greater than 1,000 acres since 1950 demonstrates the role of fire as a natural force on the refuge. The fire season in most years extends from late April through July.

Fire Management on the Refuge

Wildland fire spreading quickly. USFWS. Click to Enlarge Fire management on the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge follows guidelines presented in the refuge’s fire management plan summary as well as interagency plans. The refuge staff works closely with the Bureau of Land Management’s Alaska Fire Service Office in Fairbanks, Alaska, in monitoring and suppressing wildland fires. Refuge lands are assigned fire-protection levels based on values to be protected, with human safety being the top priority in all fire management decisions. This strategy reduces costs, keeps suppression forces available for high-priority areas, and helps maintain a more natural fire regime over much of the refuge. This increases habitat diversity and helps maintain plant community productivity.

Prescribed Burning Program
Refuge staff members continue to work with local governments and Native corporations in the Yukon Flats to develop a program that would introduce fire, by means of prescribed burning, into areas around the villages. All natural fires are now suppressed in these areas, and burning has been almost completely excluded there for 40 years. Most local residents are mainly interested in using fire to regenerate moose browse. The refuge is interested in prescribing fire in these areas to help restore the natural role of fire and to reduce hazardous fuels around dwellings.

Briefing before a controlled burn. USFWS. Click to Enlarge.Fire can be brought back by changing the fire-protection level and by using prescribed fire burns. About 89 percent of Refuge lands are within limited-suppression zones, and about 37 percent of the Refuge has burned in the last 50 years, greatly reducing the need to apply prescribed fire. However, prescribed burning still has a role in hazardous fuel reduction and to meet resource objectives. Following are the refuge prescribed burns that have taken place to date:

  • 3,500-acre hazardous fuel reduction burn around an Air Force seismic site conducted in 1994
  • 1,200-acre burn conducted in 1989 to improve habitats and study fire behavior and fire effects
  • 740-acre burn in 1998
  • Several burns near three villages comprising 930 acres total in 1999
  • 125 acres in 2000
  • 745 acres (620 acres of Refuge lands and 125 acres of village corporation lands) near the village of Beaver in 2001

Last updated: July 22, 2008