Death Valley National Park

Inyo and San Bernardino Counties, California 

Nye and Esmeralda Counties, Nevada

Fire Management Plan

September 2007
Death Valley National Park

2007 Fire Management Plan

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Executive Summary

Death Valley National Park is a vast desert landscape that encompasses almost 3.4-million acres, 

of which 95% is designated wilderness. The Park is administers by the National Park Service 

(NPS) and is surrounded entirely by Federal lands administered by the Bureau of Land 

Management, the U.S. Forest Service, and the U.S. military. The Park includes lands comanaged with the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe. In addition to National Park status, the area is a 

designated part of the Mojave and Colorado Deserts Biosphere Reserve.

While much of the Park is barren or sparsely vegetated, it also contains almost 600,000 acres of 

vegetation that is capable of carrying fire. Fuels include desert montane forest, pinyon-juniper 

woodland, sagebrush steppe and woodland, Joshua tree woodland, blackbrush shrublands and 

mesquite bosques.

The 2007 Fire Management Plan for Death Valley National Park will guide management of 

wildland fire over the next ten years. This plan fulfills responsibilities under several directives 

including the Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy, the National 10-year Comprehensive 

Strategy Implementation Plan for Reducing Wildland Fire Risks to Communities and the 

Environment, the Interagency Fire Management Plan Template, and NPS Director’s Order #18: 

Wildland Fire Management. This plan also incorporates the most current fire science. 

This plan replaces the Park’s previous Fire Management Plan that was approved in1990. The 

previous Fire Management Plan focused on suppression and did not include the 1.3 million acres 

of park land added in 1994, nor did it address wilderness (also established in 1994), nor the 

endangered riparian birds or desert tortoise. The purpose of this new Fire Management Plan is to 

implement a broader range of fire management strategies within a comprehensive wildland fire 

management program consistent with Death Valley’s General Management Plan, national 

interagency fire policies, and NPS directives. The overall goal of the fire management program at 

Death Valley National Park is to facilitate natural fire processes while ensuring firefighter and 

public safety as well as the protection of significant natural and cultural resources.

This Fire Management Plan includes the following fire management strategies: 

• 2,473,000 acres of wilderness will be managed for fire use where lightning-caused fires 

are allowed to burn under specific conditions in order to perpetuate the ecological roles of 

natural fire 

• 912,000 acres will be managed for suppression of all ignitions, primarily for the 

protection of the threatened desert tortoise, structures, and private lands. 

• Throughout the Park, all human caused fires will be suppressed. 

• Prescribed fire will be used at specific sites to perpetuate traditional cultural practices of 

the Timbisha Shoshone, and the implementation of each burn will be guided by an 

approved burn plan. 

• Hazard fuel reduction will be implemented by mechanical methods around Park owned 

structures to decrease either the volume or flammability of fuels immediately adjacent to 

structures. 
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Table of Contents

I. Fire Management Plan Introduction ................................................. 1

A. Reason for the Plan ..................................................................... 1

B. Relationship to Environmental Compliance ........................................ 3

C. Collaboration ........................................................................... 5

D. Authorities .............................................................................. 6

II. Relationship to Land Management Planning and Fire Policy .................. 7

A. NPS Management Policies concerning Wildland Fire Management ............ 7

B. Enabling Legislation of Death Valley National Park .............................. 7

C. Park-wide Goals and Objectives as they pertain to Fire Management .......... 8

D. Resource Stewardship Plan Objectives as they pertain to Fire Management .. 8

E. How the Fire Management Plan will help meet objectives of the General 

Management Plan and Resource Stewardship Plan ................................ 9

III. Wildland Fire Management Strategies .............................................. 10

A. General Management Considerations ............................................... 10

B. Wildland Fire Management Goals ................................................... 10

C. Wildland Fire Management Strategies .............................................. 12

D. Description of Fire Management Strategies by Fire Management Unit ........ 15

IV. Fire Management Components ........................................................ 64

A. Wildland Fire Suppression ............................................................ 64

B. Use of Wildland Fire

..................................................................... 86

C. Prescribed Fire .......................................................................... 91

D. Non-fire Fuel Treatments ............................................................. 91

E. Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation ........................................ 92

V. Organization and Budget ............................................................... 95

A. Organization ............................................................................ 95

B. Funding .................................................................................. 97

C. Interagency Coordination for FMP Implementation .............................. 97

D. Fire Related Agreements and Contracts ............................................. 98

VI. Monitoring and Evaluation ............................................................ 99

A. Operational Reviews .................................................................. 99

B. Fire Effects ............................................................................. 99

C. Annual update of Fire Management Plan .......................................... 100

VII. Consultation and Coordination ....................................................... 102

VIII. Preparers .................................................................................. 103

IX. References ................................................................................ 104
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X. Appendices

A. Environmental Compliance Documents and Correspondence

B. Resource Advisor Guide

C. Wilderness Minimum Requirement Analysis

D. Fire Effects Monitoring and Research Plan

E. Smoke Management

F. Five-Year Work Plan

G. Operational Considerations

List of Figures

Figure 1. Overview .............................................................................. 2

Figure 2. Fire Management Units ............................................................. 16

Figure 3. Vegetation ............................................................................ 19

Figure 4. Fire Regime ........................................................................... 20

Figure 5. Devils Hole FMU .................................................................... 22

Figure 6. Eureka Valley FMU ................................................................. 28

Figure 7. Hunter Mountain FMU .............................................................. 36

Figure 8. Panamint Range FMU ............................................................... 43

Figure 9. Black Mountains FMU .............................................................. 51

Figure 10. Grapevine FMU ..................................................................... 58

Figure 11. Fire History ........................................................................... 66

Figure 12. Listed Species Habitat ............................................................... 79

Figure 13. Organizational Chart ................................................................ 95

List of Tables

Table 1. Summary of Fire Management Units ............................................. 15

Table 2. Fire Regimes ......................................................................... 17

Table 3. Summary of Devils Hole FMU ................................................... 21

Table 4. Summary of Eureka Valley FMU ................................................ 27

Table 5. Special Status Resources in the Eureka Valley FMU .......................... 32

Table 6. Summary of Hunter Mountain FMU ............................................. 35

Table 7. Special Status Resources in the Hunter Mountain FMU ...................... 40

Table 8. Summary of the Panamint Range FMU .......................................... 42

Table 9. Special Status Resources in the Panamint Range FMU ........................ 47

Table 10. Summary of the Black Mountains FMU ......................................... 50

Table 11. Special Status Resources in the Black Mountains FMU ....................... 54

Table 12. Summary of the Grapevine Mountains FMU .................................... 57

Table 13. Special Status Resources in the Grapevine Mountains FMU ................. 62

Table 14. Documented fires over 1 acre in Death Valley National Park ................ 65

Table 15. Weather Stations in or near Death Valley National Park ...................... 68

Table 16. Expected Fire Behavior under Light Winds ..................................... 71

Table 17. Expected Fire Behavior under Moderate Winds ................................ 71

Table 18. Expected Fire Behavior under High Winds ............................................ 71

Table 19. Management and Treatment Options for Cultural Resources ................. 84

Table 20. .................................. 88
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I. INTRODUCTION

Death Valley National Park is located in eastern California and in Nevada (Figure 1). It 

encompasses approximately 3,350,000 acres (1,356,275 ha), predominately in Inyo 

County, (California) with portions in San Bernardino (California), Nye (Nevada), and Esmeralda (Nevada) counties. Private inholdings total over 4,880 acres (1,976 ha), and have 

all been derived from patented mining claims. Within the boundaries of Death Valley 

National Park, 314 acres near Furnace Creek are held in trust as a homeland for the 

Timbisha Shoshone Tribe and the NPS co-manages additional park lands as the Timbisha 

Shoshone Natural and Cultural Preservation Area. Ninety-four percent of the Park 

(approximately 3,150,000 acres or 1,275,300 hectares) is designated wilderness. The Park 

is surrounded entirely by Federal lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management, 

the U.S. Forest Service, and the U.S. military. The Park is also a designated part of the 

Mojave and Colorado Deserts Biosphere Reserve.

Extensive visitor services, residential and administrative facilities exist at Furnace Creek, 

Cow Creek, Stovepipe Wells, Grapevine and Scottys Castle. The Park has a resident 

population of about 1,400 and an annual visitation of about 1,000,000 people.

Death Valley is widely perceived as an arid desert environment in which, at first glance, 

fire would seem to play a limited ecological role. However, Death Valley contains a 

number of plant assemblages that can and do support fire. It is estimated that almost

600,000 acres (242,915 ha) of Park lands are capable of sustaining wildfires.

I.A. Reason for the Plan

As described in the existing Fire Management Plan (NPS 1990), the current fire 

management strategy in use at Death Valley is focused on suppression with limited 

opportunities for use of wildland fire and prescribed fire. The purpose of this Fire 

Management Plan is to implement a broader range of fire management strategies within a 

comprehensive wildland fire management program consistent with Death Valley’s 

General Management Plan, national interagency fire policies and NPS directives. This 

plan does not address structural firefighting except as related to wildland fuels.

Specifically, this plan fulfills responsibilities under:

• A Collaborative Approach for Reducing Wildland Fire Risks to Communities and 

the Environment: 10-year Comprehensive Strategy Implementation Plan

(Wildland Fire Leadership Council 2002) to improve fire prevention and 

suppression, reduce hazardous fuels, restore fire-adapted ecosystems, and 

promote community;

• the Interagency Fire Management Plan Template that specifies a single 

interagency template for all federal agency fire management plans;

• and, the National Park Service Director's Order #18: Wildland Fire Management 

and the Reference Manual #18 (NPS 1998) that directs park management to 

achieve multi-dimensional objectives, with a balance between suppression and 

fire use to regulate fuels and maintain healthy ecosystems.
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I.B. Relationship to Environmental Compliance 

General Management of Death Valley National Park, including general guidelines for 

wildland fire management, has been assessed through the formal analysis process 

required by the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA); 42 U.S.C. 4321-

4347. An Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was written and approved for the GMP 

and the Record of Decision was signed by the Pacific West Regional Director in 

September 2001 (NPS 2001).

This Fire Management Plan, which is a document tiered from the GMP, 

articulates specific wildland fire management practices, procedures and policies. 

Adoptions of programs or plans, such as those that guide or prescribe uses upon 

which future agency actions may be based, require environmental analyses before 

a decision is made. That analysis of the Fire Management Plan is documented in a 

separate Environmental Assessment.

Because the threatened desert tortoise (Gopherus agasizii) as well as the endangered least

Bells vireo (Vireo bellii pusillus) and potentially the endangered southwestern willow 

flycatcher (Empinodax trailli extimus) are known to occur within Death Valley National 

Park in habitats that might be affected by fire, the National Park Service assumes 

additional compliance responsibilities under Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act 

(ESA); 7 U.S.C. 136; 16 U.S.C. 460 et seq. (1973). In fulfillment of those 

responsibilities, potential impacts of the proposed fire management actions were analyzed 

in a biological assessment prepared for the Park’s General Management Plan. A 

biological opinion was issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (2001) that identified 

non-discretionary terms and conditions that have been incorporated throughout this Fire 

Management Plan and its appendices. Project specific consultation will be initiated as 

needed for fuel treatments and prescribed fires that have the potential to impact 

endangered species. 

Death Valley includes numerous cultural resources (described in more detail in the 

environmental assessment) and the National Park Service is responsible for conserving, 

protecting, preserving and managing the cultural resources in its care for long-term scientific 

research, public interpretation and education (Wells 1994). National Park Service 

Management Policies (NPS 2006, page 50) direct:

“Environmental and cultural resource compliance documentation developed in 

support of the plan will consider the effects of fire on air quality, water quality, 

and human health and safety. It will also discuss the influence of fire, fire 

management and the potential consequences and effects of fire exclusion on the 

ability of the park to meet its natural and cultural resource management 

objectives. Preparation of the plan and supporting documents will include 

collaboration with appropriate NPS natural and cultural resource offices, adjacent 

communities, interest groups, state and federal agencies, and tribal governments, 

with cooperating agency status granted when requested by eligible adjacent 

communities, state, and federal agencies, and tribal governments.”
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Furthermore, Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act 16 U.S.C. 470 et seq. 

(1966) directs agency consultation with the State Historic Preservation Office for federal 

undertakings that may affect properties listed or eligible for listing on the National 

Register of Historic Places. This Fire Management Plan and associated documents will be 

submitted to the California Historic Preservation Office for review and concurrence 

before a Record of Decision is completed for implementation of this Fire Management 

Plan. Additional laws that ensure that the NPS fulfills its obligations to cultural resources in 

the context of this fire management plan include: section 2(a) of Executive Order 11593, 

section 14 of the Archeological Resources Protection Act, the American Indian Religious 

Freedom Act, and the Native American Graves Protection Act. 

The Clean Air Act in 42 U.S.C. 7401-7671q (as amended in 1990), provides a legal 

framework for the National Park Service to preserve and protect parks' air quality related 

values from pollution sources emanating from within and outside park boundaries. NPS 

fire management activities which result in the discharge of air pollutants (e.g., smoke, 

carbon monoxide, and other pollutants from fires) are subject to, and must comply with, 

all applicable Federal, state, interstate, and local air pollution control requirements, as 

specified by Section 118 of the Clean Air Act, as amended. These requirements are the 

same substantive, procedural, and administrative requirements that apply to a private 

person or other non-governmental entity. Since fires are not point sources but rather tend 

to be spatially distributed singular events, temporary impacts to visibility and visitor 

enjoyment must be recognized, expected, and managed. This is accomplished through a 

Smoke Management Plan, a necessary component of any wildland fire program. A 

separate Smoke Management document (Appendix E) has been prepared to describe 

critical air quality receptors and weather patterns as well as to establish a communication 

and coordination protocol for smoke management on a fire incident. Our partners in this 

effort are the Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District and the Mojave Desert 

Air Quality Management District.

The Wilderness Act, 16 U.S.C. 1131 et seq. (1988), established the National Wilderness 

Preservation System, composed of federal lands designated as wilderness areas, including 

approximately 3,150,000 acres of Death Valley National Park. Wilderness areas are to be 

administered "...for the use and enjoyment of the American people in such manner as will 

leave them unimpaired for future use and enjoyment as wilderness, so as to provide for 

the...preservation of their wilderness character...." National Park Service policy (NPS 

1999) directs that in evaluating environmental impacts to wilderness, the National Park 

Service will take into account wilderness characteristics and values, including the 

primeval character and influence of the wilderness; the preservation of natural conditions 

(including the lack of man-made noise); and assurances that there will be outstanding 

opportunities for solitude, that the public will be provided with a primitive and 

unconfined type of recreational experience, and that wilderness will be preserved and 

used in an unimpaired condition. This analysis is provided in the Environmental 

Assessment. Furthermore, National Park Service policy (NPS 1999) directs that all 

management decisions affecting wilderness must be consistent with the minimum 

requirement concept. This concept is a documented process used to determine if 
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administrative activities effecting wilderness resources or the visitor experience are 

necessary and how to minimize impacts. The minimum requirement analysis for 

implementation of this Fire Management Plan can be found in Appendix C. Except where 

it is used in a direct quote, the use of the term “wilderness” throughout this document and 

its appendices refers specifically to designated wilderness and should not be confused 

with “backcountry” which does not carry the obligations of The Wilderness Act. The 

final perimeter of the designated wilderness in Death Valley National Park has not yet 

been established so throughout this document, the preliminary wilderness perimeter as of 

April 14, 2005 has been used.

I.C. Collaboration

As of 2004, Death Valley National Park is in the California Desert Fire Planning Unit, 

with the exception of the geographically disjunct Devils Hole area which is in the 

Southern Nevada Fire Planning Unit. The California Desert Fire Planning Unit includes 

14 administrative units managed by four federal agencies and includes approximately 32 

million acres. It works collaboratively to implement the fire management and interagency 

planning actions required under the new Fire Program Analysis program.

The Timbisha Shoshone Homeland Act of 2000 (Public Law 106-423) provides for the 

tribe’s living permanently on lands held in trust within their ancestral homeland, 

including 314 acres located near Furnace Creek. The act also provides special use areas, 

including the Timbisha Shoshone Natural and Cultural Preservation Area, for sustaining 

the tribe’s traditional cultural and religious activities. The NPS and the Timbisha 

Shoshone Tribal Council co-manage lands for this purpose. As fire management 

decisions will affect these co-managed lands, the Tribe is an important collaborator in the 

Fire Management Plan. 

The California Desert was designated as an Innovative Management Laboratory in 

December 1994 by then-Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt. It was subsequently 

approved by then-Vice President Al Gore under the auspices of the National Performance 

Review. The initiative is one of the Department of the Interior's priority efforts to 

demonstrate how interagency collaboration can be applied on a large scale regional basis. 

The objectives of this initiative are for the federal and state agencies in the desert to 

collaboratively: 1) plan and manage under the principles of ecosystem management; 2) 

provide effective customer service; and, 3) increase agency efficiency through 

intergovernmental organizational coordination. 

The Desert Managers Group was established as the forum for government agencies to 

address and discuss issues of common concern and is comprised of managers from the 

Department of the Interior (Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, U.S. 

Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey), Department of Defense (Air Force, 

Army, Marines and Navy) and the State of California (Departments of Fish and Game, 

Parks and Recreation, and Transportation), interagency work groups and a small 

coordination staff.
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The mission of the California Desert Managers Group is to:

• Develop coordinated and complementary management guidelines, 

practices, and programs. 

• Coordinate and integrate efforts in the California Desert to: conserve and 

restore desert resources; provide high quality recreation, public education 

and visitor services; provide for safety of desert users.

• Develop and integrate the databases and scientific studies needed for 

effective resource management and planning. 

• Promote compatibility in the application of each agency's mission.

The Fire Management Activity Plan was developed under the auspices of the Desert 

Managers Group, and the interagency fire management program remains true to the 

Desert Managers Group mission. Five Zone Fire Management Officers from the Bureau 

of Land Management and NPS manage the fire programs for all agencies within their 

zones and strive for "seamless management" across agency boundaries. Death Valley 

National Park is administratively assigned to the Bureau of Land Management Fire 

Management Officer located in the Ridgecrest Field Office. An Annual Fire Operations 

Plan (Bureau of Land Management 2006a) establishes guidelines, roles and 

responsibilities of all personnel, and specifies response of interagency resources to all 

fires within the California Desert. 

Interagency agreements to provide mutual aid assistance for wildland fires are in place at 

the national level for all five federal land management agencies (BIA, BLM, NPS, USFS 

and USFWS) and at the Regional level for those same federal agencies and the California 

Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Additionally, there is a four-party 

cooperative fire protection agreement between the 1) Bureau of Land Management, 

California and Nevada, 2) National Park Service, Pacific West Region, 3) U.S. Forest 

Service, Regions 4, 5, and 6, and 4) State of California Department of Forestry and Fire 

Protection. 

Much of the scientific information used in this plan and its appendices- particularly 

related to plant ecology, invasive plants, fire behavior, and desert tortoise - was provided 

by the U.S. Geological Survey Las Vegas Field Office. Likewise, this office is an 

important partner in the fire effects monitoring and research program.

I.D. Authorities

This Fire Management Plan was prepared under the following authorities:

• 16 U.S.C. 1 through 4.

• Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy (interagency)

• 10-Year Comprehensive Strategy (interagency)

• National Park Service Management Policies (NPS 2006)
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• National Park Service Director's Order #18: Wildland Fire Management (NPS 

1998)
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II. RELATIONSHIP TO LAND MANAGEMENT PLANNING AND POLICY

II.A. NPS Management Policies

NPS Management Policies (NPS 2006, page 49) states: “Fire management 

consists of a program of activities designed to meet management objective for 

protection of resource values, life, and property, and where appropriate, for using 

naturally ignited and human-ignited wildland fires as management tools. Park fire 

management programs designed specifically to meet park resource management 

objectives- including allowing fire to perform its natural role as much as 

practicable-will ensure that firefighter and public safety are not compromised.”

Director’s Order #18 (NPS 1998) articulates National Park Service policy on fire 

management. All NPS units with vegetation capable of burning are required to 

prepare a Fire Management Plan. This plan guides the fire management program 

that fully incorporates considerations for the preservation of natural and cultural 

resources while giving safety of Park visitors and employees and the protection of 

developed facilities the highest priority. Environmental Assessments are 

developed in support of the Fire Management Plan and consider the effects of 

different fire management strategies on air and water quality, health and safety, 

and natural and cultural resources.

Management direction for Death Valley National Park is found in the Park’s General 

Management Plan. This general planning document provides overall direction for the 

programs and activities within the Park. Additional guidance and specific goals for the 

Park’s fire management program can be referenced in the Resource Management Plan (NPS 

1994). The Resource Management Plan sets the overall framework for goals and objectives

for the Fire Management Plan. The Fire Management Plan is intended as an operational 

document providing specific guidance and approved actions to successfully manage fire 

events at Death Valley National Park. Additionally, the Fire Management Plan also ensures 

that approved actions and direction meet Federal Wildland Fire Policy and National Park 

Service policies for wildland fire management. 

II.B. Enabling Legislation

Death Valley National Monument was established by presidential proclamation under the 

Antiquities Act of 1906, on February 11, 1933 (Proclamation No. 2028). The original 

monument contained approximately 1,601,800 acres (648,500 ha). Supplementary 

proclamations in March 1937 (No. 2228) and January 1952 (No. 2961) increased the 

monument’s acreage to 2,067, 793 acres (837,163 ha). The monument was subsequently 

enlarged to 3,158,038 acres (1,278,558 ha) and changed to Death Valley National Park by 

Congressional action on October 31, 1994, with the passage of the California Desert 

Protection Act (16 U.S.C. 410aaa-83, PL 103-433). 

The California Desert Protection Act (1994) was enacted in part to:
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 Preserve unrivaled scenic, geologic, and wildlife values associated with these unique 

natural landscapes.

 Protect and preserve historical and cultural values of the California desert associated 

with ancient Indian cultures, patterns of western exploration and settlement, and sites 

exemplifying the mining, ranching and railroading history of the Old West.

 Provide opportunities for compatible outdoor public recreation, protect and interpret 

ecological and geological features and historic, paleontological, and archeological sites, 

maintain wilderness resource values, and promote public understanding and appreciation 

of the California desert.

 Retain and enhance opportunities for scientific research in undisturbed ecosystems.

II.C. Park-wide Goals and Objectives as they pertain to Fire Management

The following management objectives outlined in the Death Valley General Management 

Plan for resources and wilderness values pertain to fire management:

 Protect the significant natural and cultural resources and values of the Park, including 

geologic features, and to foster an improved understanding of natural processes through 

monitoring efforts and scientific research.

 Perpetuate native plants and animal life for their essential roles in the natural ecosystem.

 Strive to reduce or eliminate alien species to ensure long-term survival of the native 

ecosystem.

 Eliminate existing and prohibit new occurrences of all activities inconsistent with the 

protection of the natural ecosystem, except in the Park’s developed areas, as noted in the 

Park’s management plans.

 Restore to natural appearance, to the extent that it is feasible, land surfaces disturbed by 

man, recognizing that significant cultural values must be preserved.

 Protect the Park’s collections of natural and cultural objects from deterioration, natural 

disaster, misuse, and loss.

 Support research programs pertaining to natural and cultural resources and to social 

sciences, consistent with the Park’s resource protection and visitor services mission.

 Manage and protect wilderness values and resources so as to ensure public 

understanding and appreciation of the vast wilderness values and resources so as to 

ensure public understanding and appreciation of the vast wilderness assets of the Park.
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II.D. Resource Stewardship Plan Objectives as they pertain to Fire Management

The current approved Resource Management Plan (1994) for Death Valley National Park 

does not specifically address fire management, but the objectives below are not inconsistent 

with the intent or purpose of the plan. At this time, a revised Resource Management Plan is 

being drafted. The guiding resource objective for fire management will be to perpetuate 

biodiversity created through natural processes, including the influence of fire, while 

protecting cultural resources from direct harm. Resource management objectives for Death 

Valley National Park relating to fire management are the following (the new RMP will 

include these):

 Manage the Parks resources to ensure the perpetuation of the natural and cultural 

aspects for which the Park was established. This includes the reduction of hazard 

fuels and the maintenance of traditional resources through prescribed fire, mechanical 

thinning, or other appropriate means. It also includes the maintenance and/or 

restoration of cultural landscapes through the appropriate use of fire.

 Restore fire to its natural role in ecosystem maintenance. Study the role of fire and 

determine changes or traditional practices that have occurred through historic and 

pre-historic times.

 Allow, where possible, the natural functioning of environmental processes by 

maintaining the natural diversity of ecological communities while managing threats 

from non-native species and other detrimental influences.

II.E. How the Fire Management Plan will help meet objectives of the General 

Management Plan and Resource Stewardship Plan

With the implementation of the Fire Management Plan, which includes a continuum of fire 

management procedures, ecological processes are allowed to proceed as prescribed in the 

General Management and Resource Management plans. Selected sensitive structures, some 

of which are utilized and maintained on an informal basis by the public, will be protected 

from wildland fires whenever possible.

This fire management plan provides detailed guidelines to implement the preceding policies, 

goals, and objectives in an integrated, logical fashion, tailored to the resources of the Park. 

The Park’s fire management program is fundamentally based on utilizing a continuum of 

management procedures while protecting human life, facilities and cultural resources, 

sensitive species (including Federal and State listed species) and natural systems and their 

associated processes.
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III. WILDLAND FIRE MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES

III.A. General Management Considerations

In the California Desert, wildland fire on federal land is managed on an interagency basis 

between the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the National Park Service (NPS). 

Five Zone Fire Management Officers from both Bureau of Land Management and NPS 

manage the fire programs for the agencies within their zones, and strive for "seamless 

management" across agency boundaries. The California Desert Interagency Fire 

Operations Plan is updated annually to establish operational guidelines, roles and 

responsibilities for the Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service 

interagency fire management program within the California Desert and to comply with 

the most current federal wildland fire management policies and directives. This Fire 

Management Plan is a strategic document that complements the annual Operations Plan, 

which is essentially a tactical document to guide day to day fire operations in the 

California Desert. 

Consistent with the National Fire Plan, as well as the 2005 California Desert Interagency 

Fire Operations Plan and the General Management Plan for Death Valley National Park, 

this Fire Management Plan delineates fire management units and identifies appropriate 

fire management strategies within Death Valley National Park for the protection of life 

and property as well as preservation of natural and cultural resources. 

III.B. Wildland Fire Management Goals

The Death Valley National Park fire management program goals and objectives are 

aligned with the Park’s General Management Plan goals, Department of the Interior 

policy, National Park Service policy, and the National Fire Plan. The fire management 

program goals and sub-goals are listed in descending order of their priority.

The overall goal of Death Valley’s fire management program is to:

Facilitate natural fire processes while ensuring firefighter and public safety as well as 

the protection of significant natural and cultural resources.

This overall goal includes three major components as outlined below:

1) Make all fire management decisions following existing policies and based on the best 

available scientific knowledge of fire effects and management in order to meet 

resource objectives.

a. Use appropriate procedures to determine if naturally-ignited wildland fires can 

be safely managed to meet objectives or if they will be suppressed.

b. Plan fuels treatments based on potential for ignition and values at risk.

c. Monitor fire behavior and effects, and adjust fire management based on 

accumulated data.
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d. Use prescribed fire to promote traditional cultural practices based on 

ethnographic research while preserving ecological health. 

e. Support and encourage fire research programs pertaining to natural and 

cultural resources and desert region fire ecology, consistent with the Park’s 

resource protection and visitor services missions.

2) Minimize negative impacts to natural/cultural resources and wilderness values from 

suppression activities and unwanted fire effects.

a. Protect water resources by identifying and protecting surface water and 

groundwater recharge areas on each fire incident. After each fire, evaluate 

effects of fire on long-term productivity of the aquatic resources.

b. Protect air quality values by maintaining air quality monitoring to facilitate 

implementation of means to prevent deterioration of air quality values.

c. Ensure that each fire incident has at least one Resource Advisor present with 

expertise in cultural and natural resources.

d. Inventory areas of wildland fire potential and evaluate resources at risk from 

fire suppression activities or fire effects.

e. Utilize minimum impact suppression techniques in wilderness areas.

f. Assess need for mitigating measures to reduce post-fire impacts to significant 

resources, recommend treatment actions, and develop activity plan.

g. Protect cultural resources from fire and fire suppression impacts, including 

archeological, historical, and ethnographic sites illustrating the continuing 

human history of Death Valley.

h. Utilize best emergency stabilization and rehabilitation techniques to protect 

soil and to enhance natural recovery, to minimize spread of non-natives, and 

to eliminate any signs of human influence on burned sites. 

3) Provide for the efficient and cost-effective management of all fires. 

a. Actively promote public and firefighter safety.

b. Promote an interagency approach to fire management.

c. Minimize fire suppression costs.

d. Using the Incident Command System, clearly define roles and responsibilities 

for all personnel assigned to a fire incident. 

e. Make appropriate notifications to assure that Park neighbors and partners are 

informed of any fire incident that could pose a risk to private property or 

transportation corridors.

f. Utilize educational materials and opportunities to promote a broad public 

understanding of the natural role of fire and the fire management program.
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III.C. Wildland Fire Management Strategies

Concept of Response to Wildland fire

Response to Wildland Fire is defined in the Glossary of Wildland Fire Terminology 

(National Wildfire Coordinating Group 2008) as: “Any specific action suitable to meet 

Fire Management Unit (FMU) objectives. Typically, the Response to Wildland Fire

ranges across a spectrum of tactical options (from monitoring to intensive management 

actions). The Response to Wildland Fireis developed by using Fire Management Unit 

strategies and objectives identified in the Fire Management Plan.”

In practice, the response to wildland fire allows fire managers to use the most appropriate 

strategy to manage a fire given the values at risk and the firefighting resources available. 

For example, even in initial response fire managers can choose to use a containment

strategy as opposed to a more aggressive control strategy. The Glossary of Wildland Fire 

Terminology (National Wildfire Coordinating Group 2006) defines confinement as: “The 

strategy employed in appropriate management responses where a fire perimeter is 

managed by a combination of direct and indirect actions and use of natural topographic 

features, fuel, and weather factors.” In other situations, an aggressive control strategy 

may be warranted based on the potential for the fire to spread to other areas where human 

safety may become a concern. 

Wildland Fire Suppression 

Wildland fire suppression is a response to to wildland fire that results in 

curtailment of fire spread and eliminates all identified threats from the particular 

fire. All wildland suppression activities provide for firefighter and public safety as 

the highest consideration, but minimize loss of resource values, economic 

expenditures, and/or the use of critical firefighting resources. 

Under this Fire Management Plan, 911,915 acres (approximately 27% of the Park) are 

zoned for suppression to protect desert tortoise habitat, developed areas, and cultural

resources. This includes all non-wilderness lands as well as 617,234 acres of wilderness. 

Additionally, all human caused ignitions will be suppressed regardless of their location. 

Approved suppression tactics consist of fire engines, hand crews, helicopters for crew

transport and water drops, and judicious use of fixed-wing aircraft or helicopters for 

retardant drops (clear or fugitive retardant only). Hand crews use hand and power tools to 

cut, scrape or wet down vegetation to create a barrier to fire spread. Handline 

construction will be minimal and minimum impact suppression techniques will be 

employed to the fullest extent possible. Engines are used to apply water or soap-based 

surfactants (Class A foam) to vegetation. 

An informal minimum tool analysis will be performed when fire operations take 

place within designated wilderness areas to determine the types of techniques and 

tools appropriate for the situation at hand. 
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Resource advisors, personnel trained to identify and mitigate suppression impacts 

and recommend post-fire rehabilitation measures, will assess burned areas that 

exceed 10 acres or fires of any size that occur in sensitive habitats. Sensitive 

habitats include habitat for state or federally listed species as well as locally rare 

plant communities such as desert riparian and spring areas, bristlecone pine and 

limber pine forest. Resource advisors will also assess burned areas that are known 

or likely to contain cultural resources. Emergency stabilization or burned area 

rehabilitation actions will be prescribed to mitigate post-fire resource impacts. 

Use of Wildland Fire

Use of wildland fire is the management of either wildfire or prescribed fire to 

meet objectives specified in Land/Resource Management Plans in pre-defined 

geographic areas outlined in Fire Management Plans

While there is much that we do not know about the role of fire in the Mojave 

Desert, we do know that there were natural ignitions and burnable vegetation 

prior to European settlement. Thus fire must play some role in the ecology of the 

desert and particularly in shaping vegetation communities. However, our 

understanding of natural fire regimes in the Park is further complicated by an 

incomplete understanding of aboriginal burning. While it is documented that 

American Indians ignited fires in the Mojave Desert and gathered fuel wood

(Fowler et al. 1995), it is unclear the extent to which their activities modified preEuropean settlement fire regimes. Another complicating factor is the recent 

invasion of non-native plants. This increase in fine fuels has increased the 

flammability of the landscape in general but the effects of this invasion are not 

consistent across the landscape. Many of the higher elevation plant communities 

have a native perennial grass component that naturally occupies the spaces 

between shrubs, so the flammability of these communities is less influenced by 

the invasion of non-native grasses. In other areas, the non-native plants have 

difficulty establishing a continuous fuel bed on the shifting substrates and salty 

soils that characterize much of the low elevation lands, so the flammability of 

these areas are less influenced by their presence. Furthermore, effective fire 

suppression in some areas is extremely difficult because of the inaccessibility of 

the terrain. This is especially true of areas that are designated wilderness as their 

suitability for inclusion in wilderness was due to their remoteness, inaccessibility, 

and lack of human alterations (such as roads). Ideologically, the preservation of 

both wildness and naturalness in wilderness is best served by allowing fires 

started by lightning to burn naturally provided that the fires do not pose a risk to 

human life, property, biological resources, or cultural resources.

Under this Fire Management Plan, 2,473,255 acres of designated wilderness are zoned 

for use of wildland fire. This is approximately 73% of total lands within Death Valley 

National Park and 80% of Park lands that are designated wilderness. These use of 

wildland fireareas are located in lands not occupied by developed areas, historic 

resources, or desert tortoise habitat.
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Prescribed fire 

A prescribed fire is any fire ignited by management action to meet specific objectives. A 

written approved prescribed fire plan must exist, and environmental compliance 

requirements must be met, prior to ignition. Appropriate objectives include burns 

conducted for research or scientific purposes, reduction of hazard fuels, restoration of a 

natural process to fire-dependent plant communities, perpetuation of traditional cultural 

practices, or removal of non-native plant species. 

At Death Valley, prescribed fire will be used for fuel disposal (burning slash piles), to 

reduce hazardous fuels, removal of invasive saltcedar stands, to restore natural plant 

communities, and to promote specific plants as needed to maintain the traditional cultural 

practices of the Timbisha Shoshone. 

With the exception of burning slash piles, each prescribed fire will be identified in a fiveyear work plan with implementation subject to funding. Each proposed prescribed fire 

will be reviewed in an environmental screening form and all compliance documents and 

consultations will be completed prior to implementation. A burn plan will be prepared for 

each treatment (including burning of slash piles)and will describe why the prescribed fire 

is needed, what the fire will accomplish, when conditions will permit the achievement of 

desired effects, how specific fire application will occur, and how the progress and results 

will be monitored and evaluated.

Non-fire treatments

Non-fire treatments for fuels include mechanical, chemical, biological and manual 

methods. These treatments may be used individually, with or without fire, and/or 

in combination to achieve resource benefits and managements goals such as 

hazard fuels reduction, ecosystem restoration, and maintaining ecosystem health.

Mechanical fuel reduction is the only non-fire fuel treatment identified for 

implementation in this Fire Management Plan. Mechanical fuel management uses hand 

and/or power tools to cut or remove live or dead vegetation to decrease either the volume 

or flammability of the fuels. Fuels treatments are planned activities that are conducted 

before a fire occurs in order to reduce fire risk. The primary fuel treatments proposed in 

Death Valley National Park are hazard fuel reduction immediately adjacent to Park

owned structures and hazard fuel reduction in developed campgrounds. Fuel removal as a 

traditional cultural practice of the Timbisha Shoshone may also occur in specific cultural 

use areas identified through on-going consultation with the Tribe. Priority for 

implementation of fuel treatments will be based on the potential for ignition and the 

values at risk. Those locations where hazardous fuels pose the greatest risk to human life 

or safety are highest priority, those locations that pose a risk to irreplaceable natural or 

cultural resources are medium priority, and other sites are lowest priority. Fuel removal 

for cultural purposes will be undertaken only in close cooperation with the Timbisha 

Shoshone. No fuels in riparian areas will be removed that have the potential to provide 
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habitat for the endangered least Bell’s vireo or the endangered southwestern willow 

flycatcher without consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Each fuel 

treatment project will be identified in a five-year work plan with implementation subject 

to funding. Each proposed fuel treatment will be reviewed in an environmental screening 

form and all compliance documents and consultations will be completed prior to 

implementation.

The Park will also incorporate hazard fuel reduction and fire preparedness requirements 

into various permits and agreements that involve structures managed by others on Park

lands. Examples include utility rights-of-way substations and communication sites as 

well as concessions operations. Any private or public inholding located within the Park

that is not legally subject to permits or agreements cannot be required to adhere to hazard 

fuel reduction standards. To encourage such owners/operators to voluntarily implement 

fire prevention measures, the Park will implement a fire prevention and education 

campaign and work with property owners and residents to reduce fuel hazards. 
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III.D. Description of Wildland Fire Management Strategies by Fire Management 

Unit

Fire Management Units (FMUs) identify areas of the Park that are assigned different fire 

management objectives and strategies based on management constraints, fire regime, and 

the human, natural, and cultural resource values to be protected. By designating Fire 

Management Units, decision making processes regarding the use of fire and fire 

suppression are simplified for the Incident Commander and/or Fire Program Manager.

There are six Fire Management Units within Death Valley National Park (Figure 2, Table 

1). Appropriate fire management objectives and strategies within each Unit are based on 

vegetation type, known fire history, behavior and effects, resource concerns, 

accessibility, and proximity to developed areas, private property and homes. 

Table 1. Summary of Fire Management Units

Fire Management Unit Total Acres Burnable Acres Map

Devils Hole 40 38 Figure 5

Eureka Valley 708,600 156,000 Figure 6

Hunter Mountain 557,600 140,700 Figure 7

Panamint Range 893,400 157,500 Figure 8

Black Mountain 886,400 52,900 Figure 9

Grapevine Mountains 339,200 82,800 Figure 10
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One key variable in the delineation of fire management units is vegetation type (Figure 

3). Vegetation types as described in this plan are based on the Central Mojave Vegetation 

Mapping Project (Thomas et al. 2004). This geospatial data displays vegetation and other 

land cover types in the eastern Mojave Desert of California. Map labels represent 

alliances and groups of alliances as described by the National Vegetation Classification 

system (FGDC 1997). The nominal minimum mapping unit is 5 hectares. Each map unit 

is labeled by a primary land cover type. Data were developed using field visits, 1:32,000 

aerial photography, SPOT satellite imagery, and predictive modeling. These vegetation 

map units are further grouped into ecological zones (based on the descriptions of Brooks 

and Minnich 2006) that approximate fire regimes (Table 2, Figure 4). Additionally, the 

Central Mojave Vegetation Mapping Project coupled with field knowledge of Death 

Valley staff was used to delineate “burnable areas,” that is vegetated zones with adequate 

fuel load and fuel continuity to allow fire to carry beyond the point of ignition.

Table 2. Fire regimes based on ecological zones (Brooks and Minnich 2006)

Ecological Zone Characteristic 

vegetation

Fire regime Concerns

Low elevation desert 

shrubland

- Alkali sink

- Creosote bush scrub

below 900 m

Infrequent surface fires 

due to very sparse and 

discontinuous fuels, 

although fuel loads can be 

significantly increased 

following wet winters due 

to the increased fine fuel 

load. 

Where invaded by nonnative grasses, increased 

fuel continuity leads to 

increased fire frequency 

and size which can 

potentially harm some 

fire intolerant native 

species.

Middle elevation desert 

shrubland and grassland

- creosote bush scrub 

above 900 m

- Joshua tree woodland

- shadscale scrub

- blackbrush 

shrublands

- desert scrub-steppe

Moderately infrequent 

surface and crown fires 

due to discontinuous fuels, 

although some areas with 

native grass and/or closed 

canopy shrublands can 

carry fire well. Somewhat 

affected by ephemeral 

plant production following 

wet winters. 

Where invaded by nonnative grass, namely red 

brome, increased fuel 

load and depth can carry 

fire into shrub crowns 

thus leading to increased 

fire size. Brome carried 

fires often lead to reinvasion by red brome 

and in extreme cases can 

result in type conversion

to non-native grassland.

High elevation - sagebrush scrub

- pinyon-juniper 

woodland

- desert chaparral

Moderately infrequent 

crown fires but can be 

large and intense when 

woody fuel moistures are 

low and winds are high. 

Fire size greatly 

influenced by canopy 

closure and slope. 

Where invaded by nonnative cheatgrass, fire 

return intervals can be 

shortened, although such 

affects are highly 

localized and probably 

less significant than in 

other ecological zones.

Desert montane - bristlecone-limber 

pine forest

- white fir

Frequent single-tree 

torching from lightning. 

Very infrequent crown fire 

and almost no surface fire 

due to low productivity 

resulting in very low fuel 

loads and continuity.

No specific alteration of 

this fire regime is 

documented.
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The extreme north end of the Park as well as Park lands in Nevada were not mapped as 

part of the Central Mojave Vegetation Mapping Project and so are not treated to the same 

analysis described above. Digital Orthographic Quarter Quadrangles were used to 

estimate the extent of burnable vegetation within these unmapped areas, but lack of detail 

prevents further classification or analysis. 

When possible, boundaries of Fire Management Units coincide with roads or landmark 

features that are easily distinguishable on the ground by fire personnel. The designation 

of Fire Management Units is intended as a general guideline for fire management 

protocol and priorities established to address safety and resource concerns specific to that 

unit. 

Common to all Fire Management Units, all human-caused ignitions are suppressed. 

Firefighter and public safety, protection of property, and responsible stewardship of all 

resources are primary concerns in the consideration of tactical or operational fire 

management efforts in all Fire Management Units.

Prescribed fire and fuel management treatments can be undertaken in any Fire 

Management Unit. Prescribed fires will be subject to a burn plan. Fuel management 

projects are very site specific and are outlined in a five-year work plan (Appendix F).

Fire management objectives for each Fire Management Unit describe operational 

objectives that are considered realistic under typical fuel loads and fire behavior. Note 

that under unusually heavy fuel loads, such as those that follow extremely wet winters, 

the suppression goals may not be realistic. The intent is to identify objectives that meet 

resource protection needs and are operationally feasible most of the time, not necessarily 

all of the time.
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III.D.1. Devils Hole Fire Management Unit

a) Physical characteristics of Devils Hole Fire Management Unit 

Table 3. Summary of Devils Hole FMU

Total size 40 acres

Wilderness 0 acres

Suppression 40 acres

Fire Use 0 acres

Elevational Range 580 feet above sea level

Burnable Vegetation 38 Acres

Devils Hole Fire Management Unit is coincident with the disjunct Park lands of the same 

name. This 40 acre parcel (Table 3, Figure 5) is located in Nye County, Nevada and is 

surrounded by the 23,000-acre Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. To establish the 

landscape context in which this FMU will be managed, the historic role of fire and 

wildland fire management situation descriptions were drawn from the Ash Meadows 

National Wildlife Refuge Fire Management Plan (USFWS 2004). However, the values at 

risk, management considerations, and fire management strategies for the Devils Hole 

FMU were developed by the NPS and apply only to the 40 acre parcel managed as Devils 

Hole.

Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge is managed as part of the larger Ash Meadows 

Fire Management Unit, which includes both the refuge as well as surrounding lands 

managed by the Bureau of Land Management.

The primary resource at Devils Hole is the endangered Devils Hole pupfish (Cyprinodon 

diabolis) that inhabits a pool in a limestone cavern. There are also other species of 

concern that inhabit the terrestrial and/or aquatic habitats of Ash Meadows, and 

potentially the Devils Hole FMU.
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b) Historic role of fire in Devils Hole Fire Management Unit

Note: this section was excerpted from the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge Fire 

Management Plan (USFWS 2004).

Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge currently lacks the site-specific histories of fire 

and forest structure that are necessary for scientifically based land-management planning 

in this region. Site-specific fire histories provide the physical evidence of historical 

conditions that is critical to assessing the need for active management of specific 

watersheds, e.g., mechanical fuel treatment, prescribed fire or use of wildland fire, and 

justifying such management actions within agencies and to the public. In general, fire 

regimes varied across space in response to variation in factors such as topography and 

climate. While archival records reveal the modern factors such as fuel structure through 

fire exclusion, the influence of factors on past fire regimes is not fully understood.

Extrapolating historical fire regimes across Nevada is further hampered by the nearly 

complete lack of information on historical fire regimes in any watershed in this region.

Records from the BLM for the Ash Meadows Fire Management Unit, which covers about 

52,600 acres, indicate an average of 0.3 ignitions per year between 1980 and 2002, with 

an average of 63 acres burned per year. Fires ranged in size from 0.3 to 1,100 acres, and 

71% were less than 100 acres in size. Median wildfire size is 206 acres. An average of 

approximately 628 acres burns per decade. Human causes account for 86% of all fires, 

with the remaining 14% attributed to lightning.

c) Wildland fire management situation in Devils Hole Fire Management Unit

1) Historical weather analysis: 

Most precipitation in Death Valley National Park comes in late winter and early spring, 

occurring as rain in the lower elevation and snow in the higher elevations. Summer 

precipitation occurs primarily as localized and generally heavy thunderstorms. It usually 

occurs in the afternoon and evening after diurnal heating of the land sets up convection 

type air movements. These storms move fast; the period of rainfall is of short duration and 

is accompanied by high winds, thunder and lightning. Usually these storms begin by the 

beginning of July under a monsoon type pattern that persists until the end of September. 

The Ash Meadows Fire Management Plan relies on the Red Rocks RAWS located 52 miles 

to the southeast of Devils Hole. This RAWS station is managed by the Bureau of Land 

Management and sits at an elevation of 3760 feet in yucca and creosote vegetation. 

2) Fire Season: 

Note: this section was excerpted from the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge Fire 

Management Plan (USFWS 2004).
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Fires generally occur from April through October, but can occur at any time of year in 

fine fuels when relative humidity is low. The extreme heat and very low relative humidity 

of summer allows fire to readily burn in woody fuels including saltcedar, willow, 

cottonwood, and mesquite.

3) Fuel characteristics in relation to fire behavior:

Note: this section was excerpted from the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge Fire 

Management Plan (USFWS 2004).

Approximately two-thirds of Ash Meadows is riparian and marsh vegetation. In 

undisturbed areas of this habitat, saltgrass is the carrier fuel and will burn at moderate 

intensity and spread. The remainder of the land is predominantly creosote bursage and 

saltbush, with scattered stands of mesquite/acacia. Wildfires in desert vegetation 

communities of Ash Meadows are rare and generally depend upon ephemeral buildups of 

red brome and other introduced fine fuels.

Most wildfires at Ash Meadows involve saltcedar as the carrier fuel. Saltcedar fires tend 

to be fuel driven, rather than wind dependent. Aside from saltcedar, the other vegetative 

type that is prone to fire within Ash Meadows consists of scattered stands of 

mesquite/acacia woodland. Saltcedar fires here have exhibited high intensity and spread, 

whereas fires in the mesquite/acacia are usually single tree. The large fires recorded in 

Ash Meadows have all been human-caused ignitions.

4) Fire regime alteration: 

Note: this section was excerpted from the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge Fire 

Management Plan (USFWS 2004).

Fire occurrence in the desert areas of Ash Meadows has been historically infrequent. 

However, fire frequencies may increase, due both to increased human-caused fires and 

due to increased continuity of fine fuels caused by the growing dominance of introduced 

annual grasses.

Some riparian/marsh areas are infested with saltcedar, mainly along a series of irrigation 

channels. These introduced non-native fuels allow transport of fire into the interior of the 

marsh system. Saltcedar and other undesirable plant species also promote wildfires of 

larger size and intensity, versus the historical norm for this ecosystem.

5) Control Problems: 

Note: this section was excerpted from the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge Fire 

Management Plan (USFWS 2004).

Saltcedar fires here have exhibited high intensity and spread, whereas fires in the 

mesquite/acacia are usually single tree. The dense thickets are hot (summer temperatures 

exceed 100 degrees F) and dry (relative humidity is often less than 10 %) so fire occurs 
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easily (with infrequent lightning) and spreads rapidly. Fire favors saltcedar. Saltcedar's 

extensive and deep root structure is largely unharmed by fire, allowing it to recover more 

quickly than native plants and fill in the burned area thus increasing its susceptibility to 

fire.

In the summer months, fires will readily burn in saltcedar, willow, cottonwood, and 

mesquite. Fires in these fuels will be intense with rapid rates of spread under windy 

conditions. Flare-ups in these fuels under low relative humidity conditions will create 

spot fires and make fires difficult to control. Spot fires can occur at 1/2 mile or more.

Indirect tactics may be necessary to bring them under control. Intermixed with saltcedar

and mesquite are annual and perennial grasses that will support fire spread and intensity.

6) Values to be protected, managed or at risk:

The primary resource at Devils Hole is the endangered Devils Hole pupfish (Cyprinodon 

diabolis) that inhabits a pool in a limestone cavern. Protection of this highly valued 

resource includes both the protection of the water as well as the surrounding lands as 

necessary to maintain the health of the aquatic habitat.

Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge and/or Devils Hole provide habitat for 24 

endemic species, including eleven species protected under the Endangered Species Act

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1990). The habitat for these listed species is the springs, 

streams, or wet meadows found in this unique desert oasis. Protection of these species 

during fire management activities is also addressed in the Fire Management Plan for Ash 

Meadows National Wildlife Refuge (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 2004).

Federally listed species:

Ash meadows Amargosa pupfish (Cyprinodeon nevadensis mionectes) - endangered 

Warm Springs pupfish (Cyprinodon nevadaensis pectoralis) - endangered 

Ash Meadows speckled dace (Rhinichthys osculus nevadensis) - endangered 

Amargosa niterwort (Nitrophila mohavensis) - endangered 

Spring-loving centaury (Centaurium namophilum namophilum) - threatened

Ash Meadows milk-vetch (Astragalus phoenix) - threatened 

Ash Meadows sunray (Encelioposis nudicaulis var. corrugata) - threatened 

Ash Meadows gumplant (Grindelia fraxino-pratensis) - threatened 

Ash Meadows blazing star (Mentzelia leucophylla) - threatened 

Ash Meadows ivesia (Ivesia eremica) - threatened 

Ash Meadows naucorid (Ambrysus amargosus) - threatened 

In addition to all of the endemic species, a few pairs of endangered Southwestern willow 

flycatcher (Empidonax traillii extimus) use Ash Meadows as breeding habitat from June 

through August each year. Two endangered species success stories, the peregrine falcon 

(Falco peregrinus anatum) and bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) also use Ash 

Meadows seasonally as a migration stop over. 
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d) Fire management objectives for Devils Hole Fire Management Unit.

• Suppress all fires and contain each ignition to less than 1 acre.

• Actively protect the shoreline of Devils Hole from burning.

• Regardless of fire size or location, assess each burned area for potential affect to 

listed species, including the potential for mud or ash to flow from the burned area 

into the water at Devils Hole.

e) Management considerations to operational implementation in Devils Hole Fire 

Management Unit.

• As the site is easily accessible, fire suppression should be conducted using 

engines with hoselays on roadways and/or hand crews.

• Under no circumstances should water be drafted or dipped for firefighting 

purposes from Devils Hole.

• Under no circumstances should foam or retardant be used in this FMU due to the 

potential for chemical contamination of Devils Hole.

• Water drafted or dipped from other natural sites should not be discharged into or 

adjacent to Devils Hole due to the potential for biological contamination of this 

critical habitat.

f) Fire Management strategies in Devils Hole Fire Management Unit.

Suppression: 40 acres will be managed for full suppression. 

Fire Use: There are no acres to be managed for fire use. 

Mechanical Fuel Reduction: There are no mechanical fuel reduction projects identified 

for Devils Hole.

Restoration and Rehabilitation: The primary issue regarding any restoration or 

rehabilitation response at Devils Hole is the protection of the endangered Devils Hole 

pupfish and their habitat as well as other listed species.
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III.D.2. Eureka Valley Fire Management Unit

a) Physical characteristics of Eureka Valley Fire Management Unit 

Table 4. Summary of Eureka Valley FMU

Total size 708,600 acres

Wilderness 670,300 acres

Suppression 38,300 acres

Fire Use 670,300 acres

Elevational Range 1070 to 8455 feet above sea level 

Burnable Vegetation 156,000 acres

Fire Regime based on 

Vegetation Communities

(Taken from Thomas et al. 2004, 

but does not include classification 

of western or northern edges)

140 acres non-fuel: human development or land use

17,500 acres non-fuel: barren or very sparsely vegetated

411,200 acres low elevation desert shrublands

147,700 acres middle elevation desert shrublands and woodland

76,700 acres high elevation desert shrublands and woodland

The Eureka Valley FMU is 708,600 acres (Table 4, Figure 6) and covers the entire north 

end of Death Valley National Park. The west, north, and east boundaries of the FMU are 

coincident with the Park boundary. The eastern edge of the southern boundary is defined 

by the Scotty’s Castle Road (Inyo County’s Bonnie Claire Road). The remaining portion 

of the southern boundary follows the Ubehebe Crater road to the gravel, high clearance 

Racetrack Road, then south along that road through the Racetrack Valley. It continues 

westerly along the 4x4 Lippincott Road to the gravel Saline Valley road, and then follows 

that road northwest to the park boundary. 

The Eureka Valley FMU includes 670,300 acres of wilderness. It is bisected north-south 

by the Last Chance Range, a rugged mountain range that supports a variety of vegetation 

communities. On the west side of the Last Chance Range, lies the Eureka Valley and the 

Saline Valley. The Eureka Valley includes the Eureka Dunes, which are the highest 

dunes in California and the second highest in North America. On the east side of the Last 

Chance Range lays the northern reach of Death Valley. The extreme western margin of 

the FMU includes the edge of the Inyo Mountains. Other smaller named ranges and 

valleys are interspersed within this north-south trending series of basins and ranges. 

Elevation in this FMU ranges from 1070 feet above sea level in the south end of Saline 

Valley to 8455 feet at Last Chance Mountain in the northern most area of the FMU.

A large area of non-Park land is located in the north central portion of this FMU, directly 

south of Last Chance Mountain. This area includes a portion of the paved and gravel Big 

Pine / Death Valley Road, and an old sulfur mining site and the land surrounding it that is 

administered by the Bureau of Land Management.

The Eureka Valley FMU is contiguous with Inyo National Forest (CA) and Bureau of 

Land Management Ridgecrest Field Office (CA) on the west side, and the Bureau of 

Land Management Bishop Field Office (CA) on the north side, and the Bureau of Land 

Management Tonopah Field Office (NV) on the east side.
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b) Historic role of fire in Eureka Valley Fire Management Unit

As much of the land within this FMU was only added to Death Valley National Park with 

the passage of the California Desert Protection Act in 1994, the records of fire occurrence 

are incomplete. 

The Eureka Valley FMU includes approximately 156,000 acres of burnable vegetation. 

These burnable acres are concentrated in the Last Chance Range and Inyo Mountains. 

The highest elevations include significant expanses of pinyon woodlands and big 

sagebrush woodlands. The mountain slopes support desert shrublands of blackbrush, 

shadscale, or hopsage. In some areas Joshua trees are interspersed in other shrublands and 

in a few areas a true Joshua tree woodland exists. The southern end of the Saline Valley 

includes mesquite bosque. The Scottys Castle developed area also includes some 

burnable vegetation including both natural vegetation communities associated with the 

springs as well as planted cultural landscape elements.

While there is much that is not known about natural fire regimes of desert vegetation 

communities, fire certainly is part of the natural ecology of at least some communities. 

Brooks and Minnich (2006) have recently characterized historic fire regimes of the 

California desert. The historic fire regime of pinyon woodlands was likely characterized 

by relatively large, patchy to complete, moderate intensity surface to crown fires, and a 

long fire return interval. Fires in sagebrush woodlands are patchy to complete, moderate 

intensity passive crown to crown fires, depending on the continuity of the woody shrub 

fuels. At the interface between sagebrush and pinyon woodlands a surface to passive 

crown fire regime is the norm as fire spreads through woody and herbaceous surface fuels 

and occasionally torches individual trees. Most fires in these communities are standreplacing events where most of the individual plants die and recovery takes decades. 

Joshua tree woodland and blackbrush shrublands have high fuel continuity. The historic 

fire regime was likely characterized by relatively moderate to large sized, patchy to 

complete, moderate intensity, surface to crown fires, and a long fire return interval. The 

heavy fuel load and high fuel continuity of mesquite bosques result in high intensity 

crown fires with limited capacity to spread due to the sparse desert fuels surrounding the 

bosques.

c) Wildland fire management situation in Eureka Valley Fire Management Unit

1) Historical weather analysis: 

Most precipitation in Death Valley National Park comes in late winter and early 

spring, occurring as rain in the lower elevation and snow in the higher elevations. 

Summer precipitation occurs primarily as localized and generally heavy 

thunderstorms. It usually occurs in the afternoon and evening after diurnal heating 

of the land sets up convection type air movements. These storms move fast; the 

period of rainfall is of short duration and is accompanied by high winds, thunder 

and lightning. Usually these storms begin by the beginning of July under a monsoon type pattern that persists until the end of September. 
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Two weather stations are most relevant to the Eureka Valley FMU: 1) the manual 

station at Scottys Castle is in desert scrub at 3280 feet in elevation, and 2) the Oak 

Creek RAWS maintained by Inyo National Forest which lies outside the Park at 

4855 feet in elevation in sagebrush woodland.

2) Fire Season: 

Lower elevation vegetation communities can and do burn at any time of year, 

although fire is unlikely to carry at any time due to the widely spaced fuels. 

Mesquite bosques can likewise burn at any time of year, but are most likely to 

burn during the hot dry winds of late summer. The Joshua tree woodland and 

blackbrush shrublands can generally carry fire after the spring annual vegetation 

cures, generally early May through September. The sagebrush woodland and 

pinyon woodlands can carry fire after winter snow is gone, generally mid-May 

through September although it may vary significantly based on annual snowfall 

patterns. 

3) Fuel characteristics in relation to fire behavior:

Brooks and Minnich (2006) characterized fuel conditions in relation to fire 

behavior for California desert fuels. Fire spread can occur most any time of year

in sagebrush steppe, although it is more likely when live fuel moisture is low 

during prolonged drought or fine fuel loads are high following winter moisture, or 

during periods of high winds and low relative humidity. Fire spread in pinyon 

woodlands is most probable when live fuel moisture and relative humidity are low 

and winds are high. Under extreme burning conditions characterized by high wind 

and low relative humidity, both communities may experience high intensity 

crown fires with rapid rates of spread. Joshua tree woodland and blackbrush 

shrublands can carry fire in any year, but fire frequency and size may be increased 

by abundant winter moisture which serves to increase the fine fuel load between 

the shrubs. The high flammability of blackbrush allows most fires to crown in this 

community.

Mesquite bosques grow in wet areas and thus are less influenced by live fuel 

moisture than by weather. Observations indicate that high winds and low relative 

humidity allow fire to carry through this community aided by the thick 

accumulations of duff between plants and tightly spaced crowns.

4) Fire regime alteration: 

Where cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) is established in sagebrush, it serves to carry 

fire along the surface between widely spaced shrub crowns. This can greatly 

increase fire size, changing a single shrub torching to a spreading fire. The 

influence of cheatgrass is less pronounced in closed canopy sagebrush where the 

canopy itself carries the fire. In pinyon woodlands, cheatgrass has a limited 

influence due to the self-pruning of the trees; however, on steep slopes it can 
Death Valley National Park

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serve as a ladder fuel carrying surface fire into the crown. As pinyon has thin 

bark, individual trees might be killed by burning cheatgrass around their bases 

even if the fire does not reach the crown. 

Where red brome (Bromus madritensis ssp. rubens) has invaded, it can increase 

fuel continuity within the Joshua tree woodlands and blackbrush shrublands. Its 

effect is most pronounced in years of abundant winter moisture and in the lower 

elevational zones of these communities where the native fine fuels tend to be 

widely spaced.

Where saltcedar (Tamarix spp.) has invaded mesquite bosques, they can greatly

increase the flammability of the site and will readily re-invade after fire. 

However, prescribed fire can be used to force saltcedar to re-sprout and herbicide 

can then be used for effective control.

5) Control Problems: 

Fires are most likely to be caused by lightning strikes in the high mountain areas 

or from human ignitions in and around developed sites. Most fires are wind driven 

events of short duration that can generate very high rates of spread (over 100 

chains per hour), flame lengths that exceed 15-30 feet with spotting distances in

excess of one mile ahead of the fire on relatively flat ground. Terrain in much of 

this FMU is rugged and inaccessible by vehicle, and in some cases on foot, 

resulting in delayed detection and long response times. The Park has few 

suppression resources and firefighters available in-house. The closest staffed 

engines are over an hour and a half away from the central section of the Park. The 

closest Helitack resource has a 40-minute response to the same area of the Park. 

6) Values to be protected, managed or at risk: 

The southeastern corner of the Eureka Valley FMU includes the Death Valley 

Scotty Historic District, a listed historic property in the National Register of 

Historic Places. This site has been developed for substantial visitor and 

administrative use, including a visitor center operation, concessions operation, 

employee offices, and employee housing. The District also includes Lower Vine 

Ranch, which has numerous historic structures but is not open to the public. There 

are significant fuels, including cultural landscape elements, around both Lower 

Vine Ranch and Scottys Castle that could carry fire.

The western portion of the Eureka Valley FMU includes the Saline Valley, an 

area of concentrated visitor use associated with the natural hot springs. There is a 

continuous human presence in this area resulting in a variety of ad-hoc 

improvements and developments. There are significant fuels in this area that have 

been known to carry human-caused fires in the past.
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There are no active grazing allotments in this FMU, although the Hunter 

Mountain Allotment is located immediately south of this FMU in the Hunter 

Mountain FMU. The allotment boundary is contiguous with the FMU boundary; 

however, there is potential for cattle to stray into the Eureka Valley FMU.

There are a number of rare species in this FMU, particularly in the Eureka Dunes. 

While the dunes are not burnable and these species are not at risk from fire, any 

off-road travel for fire response in and around the Eureka Dunes area should be 

avoided to the extent possible. There are a few special status species known to 

occur in the burnable areas of this FMU, although survey is incomplete. The 

Resource Advisor Guide (Appendix B) includes species specific lists and 

information. A brief summary is provided here in Table 5. 

Table 5. Special status resources in the Eureka Valley FMU.

Burnable

Area

Vertebrate

Animals

Vascular

Plants

Cultural

Resources

Inyo Mountains 3 bird species None 2 historical

1 unknown

Last Chance Range North 2 bird species 27 species 1 historical

1 unknown

Last Chance Range South 2 bird species 21 species 1 unknown

Saline Valley 9 bird species

1 bat species

10 species 1 archaeological

Scottys 9 bird species

1 bat species

4 species 1 historical

1 ethnographic

1 ethno/hist/arch

1 prehistoric

d) Fire management objectives for Eureka Valley Fire Management Unit.

• In the Death Valley Scotty Historic District, implement full suppression with a 

control strategy. 

• In areas to be managed for suppression, contain fires to less than 10 acres.

• Monitor lightning-caused fires in the fire use zones and manage fires for resource 

benefits where there is minimal risk to other values. 

• Record and document fire behavior, fire effects, burn severity, and post-fire 

succession when possible. 

• As needed, conduct hazard fuel reduction around Park owned structures while 

preserving cultural landscape elements.
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e) Management considerations to operational implementation in Eureka Valley Fire 

Management Unit.

• Avoid suppression impacts to special status plant and animal species. Of 

particular concern is the endangered least Bell’s vireo which is known to use 

riparian woodlands in this FMU.

• Protect identified cultural resources from both fire and fire suppression impacts. 

Avoid using fire retardant and avoid direct bucket drops over specific cultural 

resource sites as identified by the resource advisor.

• Retardant and foam use should be avoided in water collection areas, including 

Palm Spring and Lower Warm Spring in the Saline Valley and Steininger Spring 

in the Scottys Castle area.

• Communicate with Park Rangers regarding fires that could potentially threaten 

the Scottys Castle area or Saline Valley hot springs areas so that they can 

coordinate timely evacuations from these sites.

• Safety issue: There are numerous old mines in this FMU which may include such 

hazards as open shafts and adits as well as unstable explosives.

f) Fire Management strategies in Eureka Valley Fire Management Unit.

Suppression: 38,300 acres will be managed for full suppression. These acres are in 

developed areas and./or contain historic resources. There are no wilderness acres in this 

FMU that will be managed for suppression.

Fire Use: 670,300 acres will be managed for fire use. These acres are in wilderness in 

remote locations where suppression action is not practical and there are no structures or 

known resources at risk from fire. There are many plant communities that will benefit 

from natural fire, namely pinyon woodland and sagebrush woodland. However, local 

cultural or natural resources may exist and a resource advisor should be consulted before 

an ignition is managed for fire use.

Mechanical Fuel Reduction: Death Valley Scotty Historic District presents many issues 

that should be addressed in a site specific fire protection plan for that District. Such a 

plan should include treatments at Scottys Castle and Lower Vine Ranch to remove 

hazardous fuels that could result in direct flame impingement of buildings or other 

cultural properties. As needed, fuel may be cleared around the water collection gallery as 

well. All mechanical fuel reduction in this area must be coordinated with cultural 

resource management staff to protect cultural landscape elements, and natural resource 

staff to protect natural elements, especially habitat for Least Bell’s Vireo.

Restoration and Rehabilitation: Burned area emergency response should focus on postfire watershed effects on water collection areas due to their importance to human use of 
Death Valley National Park

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Saline Valley and Scottys Castle areas. Suppression rehab should focus on evaluation of 

impacts to special status resources. Emergency stabilization efforts should include 

consideration of the numerous mine shafts, adits, and structures that may represent both 

historic resources as well as safety hazards.
Death Valley National Park

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III.D.3. Hunter Mountain Fire Management Unit

a) Physical characteristics of Hunter Mountain Fire Management Unit 

Table 6. Summary of Hunter Mountain FMU

Total size 557,600 acres

Wilderness 537,800 acres

Suppression 19,800 acres

Fire Use 537,800 acres

Elevational Range 70 to 8950 feet above sea level

Burnable Vegetation 140,700 acres

Fire Regime based on 

Vegetation Communities

(Taken from Thomas et al. 2004)

6 acres non-fuel: human development or land use

13,000 acres non-fuel: barren or very sparsely vegetated

337,600 acres low elevation desert shrublands

130,400 acres middle elevation desert shrublands and woodland

76,600 acres high elevation desert shrublands and woodland

The Hunter Mountain FMU is 557,600 acres (Table 6, Figure 7) and covers the northwest 

area of Death Valley National Park. The western boundary of the FMU is coincident with 

the Park boundary. The northern boundary follows the Ubehebe Crater road to the gravel, 

high clearance Racetrack road then south along that road through the Racetrack Valley. It 

continues westerly along the 4x4 Lippincott Road to the Saline Valley gravel road, and 

then follows that road northwest to the park boundary. It then follows the park boundary 

south to CA State Highway 190. The eastern boundary is defined by the Scotty’s Castle 

Road (Inyo County’s Bonnie Claire Road), then across from Red Wall Canyon it follows 

a historic road (now closed) southwest, then south to the Cottonwood Canyon road, then 

southeasterly on that road to CA State Highway 190 at Stovepipe Wells. The southern 

boundary is defined by CA State Highway 190.

The Hunter Mountain FMU includes 537,800 acres of wilderness. It is bisected northsouth by the Cottonwood Mountains, a part of the Panamint Range. On the west side of 

the Cottonwood Mountains, lies the southern end of the Saline Valley separated by a low 

pass from the Panamint Springs Valley. On the east side of the Cottonwood Mountains 

lays Death Valley. The extreme western margin of the FMU includes the Nelson Range 

and the Darwin Plateau. Elevation in this FMU ranges from 70 feet above sea level along 

the margin of Death Valley in the eastern edge of the FMU to 8950 feet at Tin Mountain 

in the Cottonwood Mountains in the northern most area of the FMU. Another noteworthy 

feature of this FMU is Hunter Mountain, a broad, heavily vegetated mountain at an 

elevation of 7454 feet located in the south-central portion of the FMU.

This FMU surrounds Panamint Springs, a small private inholding that includes a yearround commercial and residential development along Highway 190. 

The Hunter Mountain FMU is contiguous with Bureau of Land Management Ridgecrest

Field Office (CA) on the west side. All other boundaries of this FMU are inside the Park.
Death Valley National Park

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Death Valley National Park

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b) Historic role of fire in Hunter Mountain Fire Management Unit

Fire history analysis indicates that the Hunter Mountain FMU has supported seven

relatively large fires in recent years: the 181 acre Sandy Fire in Lemoigne Canyon in 

1983 which burned in Joshua tree woodland; the 600 acre Butte Fire in 1984 which 

burned in Joshua tree woodland with a significant Nevada joint-fir component; the 6000 

acre Saline Fire in 1984 which burned in pinyon-juniper woodland and bitterbrush 

community; the 833 acre White Horse Fire in Lemoigne Canyon in 1984 which burned in 

Joshua tree woodland; the 1987 Saline 2 Fire which burned 400 acres of an undisclosed 

fuel type; the 140 acre Hunter Fire in 1990 which burned in pinyon woodland, and the 

2006 Saline Fire which burned 70 acres in Joshua tree woodland and pinyon-juniper 

woodland.

The Hunter Mountain FMU includes approximately 140,700 acres of burnable 

vegetation. These burnable acres are concentrated in the following areas: Hunter 

Mountain, northern Cottonwood Mountains, Nelson Range, Lee Flat, and Darwin 

Plateau. The highest elevations include significant expanses of pinyon-juniper woodlands 

interspersed with monotypic stands of either pinyon or juniper. There are also large 

expanses of big sagebrush woodlands. The mountain slopes support desert shrublands of 

blackbrush, shadscale, or hopsage. In some areas true Joshua tree woodland exists. Fuels 

in developed areas consist primarily of planted species.

While there is much that is not known about natural fire regimes of desert vegetation 

communities, fire certainly is part of the natural ecology of at least some communities. 

Brooks and Minnich (2006) have recently characterized historic fire regimes of the 

California desert. The historic fire regime of pinyon juniper woodlands was likely 

characterized by relatively large, patchy to complete, moderate intensity surface to crown 

fires, and a long fire return interval. Fires in sagebrush woodlands are patchy to complete, 

moderate intensity passive crown to crown fires, depending on the continuity of the 

woody shrub fuels. At the interface between sagebrush and pinyon woodlands a surface 

to passive crown fire regime is the norm as fire spreads through woody and herbaceous 

surface fuels and occasionally torches individual trees. Most fires in these communities 

are stand-replacing events where most of the individual plants die and recovery takes 

decades. Joshua tree woodland and blackbrush shrubland have high fuel continuity. The 

historic fire regime was likely characterized by relatively moderate to large sized, patchy 

to complete, moderate intensity, surface to crown fires, and a long fire return interval. 

Anecdotal evidence suggests that fire is a frequent occurrence in this area of the Park. 

The California Desert Plan Staff conducted an interview with the present permittee using 

the Hunter Mountain Allotment, Mr. Roy Hunter, in 1978. At the time of the interview, 

Mr. Hunter commented that a large fire occurred on the top of Hunter Mountain in the 

1880s and that the effects were noticeable in many areas until the 1940s. The area around 

Spanish Spring showed the most evidence of fire and the Inyo Mountains have had many 

lightning caused fires, far too many for him to pinpoint.
Death Valley National Park

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Historically, fires were intentionally set by the Timbisha Shoshone to promote the growth 

of vegetation or as a technique for the capture of game (Fowler et al. 1995). Ethnographic 

data suggests that fires were intentionally set in the Hunter Mountain area specifically to 

promote the growth of tobacco (Nicotiana attenuate).

c) Wildland fire management situation in Hunter Mountain Fire Management 

Unit

1) Historical weather analysis: 

Most precipitation in Death Valley National Park comes in late winter and early 

spring, occurring as rain in the lower elevation and snow in the higher elevations. 

Summer precipitation occurs primarily as localized and generally heavy 

thunderstorms. It usually occurs in the afternoon and evening after diurnal heating 

of the land sets up convection type air movements. These storms move fast; the 

period of rainfall is of short duration and is accompanied by high winds, thunder 

and lightning. Usually these storms begin by the beginning of July under a monsoon type pattern that persists until the end of September. 

Two weather stations are most relevant to the Hunter Mountain FMU: 1) the Hunter 

Mountain RAWS maintained by NPS at 6880 feet in elevation in pinyon-juniper 

woodland with sagebrush and 2) the NOAA automated station at Stovepipe Wells 

(http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/crn/hourly?stidx=1105) which sets at sea level in creosote 

bush shrublands. The manual station at Stovepipe Wells is no longer in operation; 

however, its past records are in Cow Creek curatorial storage.

2) Fire Season: 

Lower elevation vegetation communities can and do burn at any time of year, 

although fire is unlikely to carry at any time due to the widely spaced fuels. The 

Joshua tree woodland and blackbrush shrublands can generally carry fire after the 

spring annual vegetation cures, generally early May through September. The 

sagebrush woodland and pinyon woodlands can carry fire after winter snow is 

gone, generally mid-May through September although it may vary significantly 

based on annual snowfall patterns. 

3) Fuel characteristics in relation to fire behavior:

Brooks and Minnich (2006) characterized fuel conditions in relation to fire 

behavior for California desert fuels. Fire spread can occur most any time of year

in sagebrush steppe, although it is more likely when live fuel moisture is low 

during prolonged drought or fine fuel loads are high following winter moisture, or 

during periods of high winds and low relative humidity. Fire spread in pinyonjuniper woodlands is most probable when live fuel moisture and relative humidity 

are low and winds are high. Under extreme burning conditions characterized by 
Death Valley National Park

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high wind and low relative humidity, both communities may experience high 

intensity crown fires with rapid rates of spread. Joshua tree woodland and 

blackbrush shrublands can carry fire in any year, but fire frequency and size may 

be increased by abundant winter moisture which serves to increase the fine fuel 

load between the shrubs. The high flammability of blackbrush allows most fires to 

crown in this community.

4) Fire regime alteration: 

Where cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) is established in sagebrush, it serves to carry 

fire along the surface between widely spaced shrub crowns. This can greatly 

increase fire size, changing a single shrub torching to a spreading fire. The 

influence of cheatgrass is less pronounced in closed canopy sagebrush where the 

canopy itself carries the fire. In pinyon woodlands, cheatgrass has a limited 

influence due to the self-pruning of the trees; however, on steep slopes or where 

juniper is common it can serve as a ladder fuel carrying surface fire into the 

crown. As pinyon has thin bark, individual trees might be killed by burning 

cheatgrass around their bases even if the fire does not reach the crown. 

Where red brome (Bromus madritensis ssp. rubens) has invaded, it can increase 

fuel continuity within the Joshua tree woodlands and blackbrush shrublands. Its 

effect is most pronounced in years of abundant winter moisture and in the lower 

elevational zones of these communities where the native fine fuels tend to be 

widely spaced.

5) Control Problems: 

Fires are most likely to be caused by lightning strikes in the high mountain areas 

or from human ignitions in and around developed sites. Most fires are wind driven 

events of short duration that can generate very high rates of spread (over 100 

chains per hour), flame lengths that exceed 15-30 feet with spotting distances in

excess of one mile ahead of the fire on relatively flat ground. Terrain in much of 

this FMU is rugged and inaccessible by vehicle, and in some cases on foot, 

resulting in delayed detection and long response times. The Park has few 

suppression resources and firefighters available in-house. The closest staffed 

engines are over an hour and a half away from the central section of the Park. The 

closest Helitack resource is the U.S. Forest Service in Bishop, CA and has a 40-

minute response to the same area of the Park. 

6) Values to be protected, managed or at risk: 

The private inholding at Panamint Springs contains residential as well as 

commercial developments, including a campground, motel, and restaurant.

Natural fuels surrounding the property are sparse creosote bush shrublands. 
Death Valley National Park

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The southern edge of the FMU along State Highway 190 includes Emigrant 

Campground, a small roadside NPS campground with sparse desert shrubs. Near 

the campground are the historic ranger station and restroom facility, both 

constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps and featuring significant stone 

work.

The northeastern corner of the FMU includes the Mesquite Springs Campground 

on a short spur road off the Scotty’s Castle Road (Inyo County’s Bonnie Claire 

Road); it sits in a mesquite bosque capable of carrying fire.

The Park’s only active grazing allotment is the 86,400-acre Hunter Mountain 

Allotment located in this FMU. The season of use is November 20 to June 30. 

The allotment is limited to having no more than 150 head of cattle for an entire 

season.

There are a number of rare species and known cultural resources in this FMU. 

There are a few special status species known to occur in the burnable areas of this 

FMU, although survey is incomplete. The Resource Advisor Guide (Appendix B) 

includes species specific lists and information. A brief summary is provided here 

in Table 7. 

Table 7. Special status resources in the Hunter Mountain FMU.

Burnable

Area

Vertebrate

Animals

Vascular

Plants

Cultural

Resources

Cottonwood Mountains 1 bird species 26 species 1 unidentified

Panamint Range North 18 birds species

3 bats species

2 reptile species

56 species 1 prehistoric

2 historical

1 unidentified

1 ethnographic

1 ethno/historical

d) Fire management objectives for Hunter Mountain Fire Management Unit.

• In Emigrant Campground and Mesquite Springs Campground, and in areas 

surrounding Panamint Springs Resort, implement full suppression with a control 

strategy. 

• In areas to be managed for suppression, contain fires to less than 10 acres.

• Monitor lightning-caused fires in the fire use zones and manage fires for resource 

benefits where there is minimal risk to other values. 

• Record and document fire behavior, fire effects, burn severity, and post-fire 

succession when possible. 

• As needed, conduct hazard fuel reduction around Park owned structures while 

preserving cultural landscape elements.
Death Valley National Park

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e) Management considerations to operational implementation in Hunter Mountain 

Fire Management Unit.

• Avoid suppression impacts to special status plant and animal species.

• Protect identified cultural resources from both fire and fire suppression impacts. 

Avoid using fire retardant and avoid direct bucket drops over specific cultural 

resource sites as identified by the resource advisor.

• Retardant and foam use should be avoided in water collection areas, including

Darwin Wash for Panamint Springs, Emigrant Spring for Emigrant Campground, 

and Mesquite Spring for the Mesquite Spring Campground. Retardant use in other 

areas is limited to clear or fugitive products.

• Communicate with Park Rangers regarding fires that could potentially threaten 

the Panamint Springs, Emigrant Campground, or Mesquite Spring Campground

areas so that they can coordinate timely evacuations from these sites.

• Safety issue: There are numerous old mines in this FMU which may include such 

hazards as open shafts and adits as well as unstable explosives.

f) Fire Management strategies in Hunter Mountain Fire Management Unit.

Suppression: 19,800 acres will be managed for full suppression. These acres include 

developed areas and historic resources. There are no acres of wilderness in this FMU that 

will be managed for suppression.

Fire Use: 537,800 acres will be managed for fire use. These acres are in wilderness and 

are in remote locations where suppression action is not practical and there are no 

structures or known resources at risk from fire. However, local cultural or natural 

resources may exist and a resource advisor should be consulted before an ignition is 

managed for fire use.

Mechanical Fuel Reduction: The campgrounds should be treated to remove branches that 

overhang fire pits.

Restoration and Rehabilitation: Burned area emergency response should focus on postfire watershed effects on water collection areas due to their importance to human use of 

Panamint Springs and Emigrant Campground areas. Suppression rehab should focus on 

evaluation of impacts to special status resources. Emergency stabilization efforts should 

include consideration of the numerous mine shafts, adits, and structures that may 

represent both historic resources as well as safety hazards. 
Death Valley National Park

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III.D.4. Panamint Range Fire Management Unit

a) Physical characteristics of Panamint Range Fire Management Unit 

Table 8. Summary of Panamint Range FMU

Total size 893,400 acres (largest FMU in Death Valley National Park)

Wilderness 836,200 acres

Suppression 389,500 acres

Fire Use 503,900 acres

Elevational Range 217 feet below sea level to 11,049 feet above sea level

Burnable Vegetation 157,500 acres

Fire Regime based on 

Vegetation Communities

(Taken from Thomas 2004)

600 acres non-fuel: human development or land use

19,100 acres non-fuel: barren or very sparsely vegetated

656,000 acres low elevation desert shrublands

133,400 acres middle elevation desert shrublands and woodland

80,100 acres high elevation desert shrublands and woodland

4200 acres desert montane forest

The Panamint Range FMU is 893,400 acres (Table 8, Figure 8) and covers the west 

central and southwest area of Death Valley National Park. The southern and western 

boundaries of the FMU are coincident with the Park boundary. The northern boundary is 

defined by California State Highway 190. The eastern boundary is defined by State 

Highway 267 then veers southwest along the maintained hiking trail that runs from Salt 

Creek along the west side of Cotton Ball Basin until it intersects with the West Side 

Road, then follows the West Side Road until it intersects with California State Highway 

178 at Ashford Junction, then follows the 4x4 road south along the Amargosa River to 

the Parks southern boundary. 

The Panamint Range FMU includes 836,200 acres of wilderness. It is bisected northsouth by the main body of the Panamint Range. The west side of the Panamint Range has 

a gradual slope and the FMU terminates at the Park boundary within this mountain range. 

On the steep east face of the Panamint Range lies the margin of Death Valley. To the 

south of the Panamint Range lies the Owlshead Mountains. Elevation in this FMU ranges 

from 217 feet below sea level along the margin of Death Valley in the eastern edge of the 

FMU to 11,049 feet at Telescope Peak, the highest point in the Park, in the Panamint 

Range. 

The Panamint Range FMU is contiguous with Bureau of Land Management Ridgecrest 

Field Office (CA) on the west side and almost contiguous with the China Lake Naval 

Weapons Center and Fort Irwin National Training Center (Army) on the south side, 

separated by a narrow strip of land managed by the Bureau of Land Management 

Barstow Field Office (CA). The north and east boundaries of this FMU are inside the 

Park.
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Death Valley National Park

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b) Historic role of fire in Panamint Range Fire Management Unit

Fire history analysis indicates that the Panamint Range FMU has supported two large 

fires. Started by people, the 5500 acre Happy Fire burned in sparse pinyon and juniper 

fuels in 2000. The 2039 acre Butte 2 fire was ignited by lightning and burned in 

blackbrush, Nevada joint-fir shrubland, and pinyon-juniper woodland. There have been 

over a dozen other smaller fires in the FMU, particularly in the Panamint Range north of 

Telescope Peak around the Thorndike and Wildrose Campgrounds.

The Panamint Range FMU includes approximately 157,500 acres of burnable vegetation. 

These burnable acres are concentrated in the Panamint Range which supports a 

continuous cover of burnable fuels. The highest elevations include desert montane forest 

of limber pine and bristlecone pine. The surrounding high elevation lands support 

continuous expanses of pinyon woodlands interspersed with pockets of juniper or pinyonjuniper woodland. There are a few pockets of big sagebrush woodlands, particularly in 

the north end of the FMU. The mountain slopes support continuous desert shrublands of 

blackbrush. In a few areas true Joshua tree woodland exists. The eastern edge of the FMU 

includes the mesquite bosques and wetlands that occur along the West Side Road.

While there is much that is not known about natural fire regimes of desert vegetation 

communities, fire certainly is part of the natural ecology of at least some communities. 

Brooks and Minnich (2006) have recently characterized historic fire regimes of the 

California desert. The historic fire regime of the limber pine and bristlecone pine forests 

was likely characterized by truncated small, patchy, variable intensity, passive crown 

fires, and a truncated long fire return interval. The historic fire regime of pinyon 

woodlands was likely characterized by relatively large, patchy to complete, moderate 

intensity surface to crown fires, and a long fire return interval. Fires in sagebrush 

woodlands are patchy to complete, moderate intensity passive crown to crown fires, 

depending on the continuity of the woody shrub fuels. At the interface between sagebrush 

and pinyon woodlands a surface to passive crown fire regime is the norm as fire spreads 

through woody and herbaceous surface fuels and occasionally torches individual trees. 

Most fires in these communities are stand-replacing events where most of the individual 

plants die and recovery takes decades. Joshua tree woodland and blackbrush shrublands

have high fuel continuity. The historic fire regime was likely characterized by relatively 

moderate to large sized, patchy to complete, moderate intensity, surface to crown fires, 

and a long fire return interval. The heavy fuel load and high fuel continuity of mesquite 

bosques result in high intensity crown fires with limited capacity to spread due to the 

sparse desert fuels surrounding the bosques.
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c) Wildland fire management situation in Panamint Range Fire Management 

Unit

1) Historical weather analysis: 

Most precipitation in Death Valley National Park comes in late winter and early 

spring, occurring as rain in the lower elevation and snow in the higher elevations. 

Summer precipitation occurs primarily as localized and generally heavy 

thunderstorms. It usually occurs in the afternoon and evening after diurnal heating 

of the land sets up convection type air movements. These storms move fast; the 

period of rainfall is of short duration and is accompanied by high winds, thunder 

and lightning. Usually these storms begin by the beginning of July under a monsoon type pattern that persists until the end of September. 

Two weather stations are most relevant to the Panamint Range FMU: 1) the 

Panamint RAWS maintained by BLM at 6880 feet in elevation in pinyon-juniper 

woodland and 2) the manual station at Wildrose Ranger Station at 4400 feet 

elevation in pinyon. This station is rarely staffed, so its records are exceedingly 

spotty. The NOAA station automated station at Stovepipe Wells 

(http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/crn/hourly?stidx=1105) is also located in this FMU at sea 

level in sparse desert scrub, so it has limited applicability to the burnable vegetation 

in this FMU. The manual station at Stovepipe Wells is no longer in operation; 

however, its past records are in Cow Creek curatorial storage.

2) Fire Season: 

Lower elevation vegetation communities can and do burn at any time of year, 

although fire is unlikely to carry at any time due to the widely spaced fuels. 

Mesquite bosques can likewise burn at any time of year but are most likely to 

burn during the hot dry winds of late summer. The Joshua tree woodland and 

blackbrush shrublands can generally carry fire after the spring annual vegetation 

cures, generally early May through September. The sagebrush woodland and 

pinyon woodlands can carry fire after winter snow is gone, generally mid-May 

through September although it may vary significantly based on annual snowfall 

patterns. The desert montane forest generally stays snowbound well into summer, 

thus limiting the fire season to only June through August.

3) Fuel characteristics in relation to fire behavior:

Brooks and Minnich (2006) characterized fuel conditions in relation to fire 

behavior for California desert fuels. Fuels in the desert montane forest are very 

discontinuous and fine fuel production in response to abundant rainfall adds very 

little to the fuel bed due to shallow soils, low temperatures, and a short growing 

season. As a result, surface fires are extremely rare. Most fires are single trees 

torching, although fire can carry in the crowns for short distances under extreme 

fire weather conditions. Fire spread can occur most any time of year in sagebrush 
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steppe, although it is more likely when live fuel moisture is low during prolonged 

drought or fine fuel loads are high following winter moisture, or during periods of 

high winds and low relative humidity. Fire spread in pinyon and pinyon-juniper 

woodlands is most probable when live fuel moisture and relative humidity are low 

and winds are high. Under extreme burning conditions characterized by high wind 

and low relative humidity, both communities may experience high intensity 

crown fires with rapid rates of spread. Joshua tree woodland and blackbrush 

shrublands can carry fire in any year, but fire frequency and size may be increased 

by abundant winter moisture which serves to increase the fine fuel load between 

the shrubs. The high flammability of blackbrush allows most fires to crown in this 

community.

Mesquite bosques grow in wet areas and thus are less influenced by live fuel 

moisture than by weather. Observations indicate that high winds and low relative 

humidity allow fire to carry through this community aided by the thick 

accumulations of duff between plants and tightly spaced crowns. 

4) Fire regime alteration: 

Due to the low productivity and short growing season of the desert montane 

forest, weeds are generally not an issue in this fuel type.

Where cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) is established in sagebrush, it serves to carry 

fire along the surface between widely spaced shrub crowns. This can greatly 

increase fire size, changing a single shrub torching to a spreading fire. The 

influence of cheatgrass is less pronounced in closed canopy sagebrush where the 

canopy itself carries the fire. In pinyon woodlands, cheatgrass has a limited 

influence due to the self-pruning of the trees; however, on steep slopes or where 

juniper is common it can serve as a ladder fuel carrying surface fire into the 

crown. As pinyon has thin bark, individual trees might be killed by burning 

cheatgrass around their bases even if the fire does not reach the crown. 

Where red brome (Bromus madritensis ssp. rubens) has invaded, it can increase 

fuel continuity within the Joshua tree woodlands and blackbrush shrublands. Its 

effect is most pronounced in years of abundant winter moisture and in the lower 

elevational zones of these communities where the native fine fuels tend to be 

widely spaced.

Where saltcedar (Tamarix spp.) has invaded mesquite bosques, they can greatly 

increase the flammability of the site and will readily re-invade after fire. 

However, prescribed fire can be used to force saltcedar to re-sprout and herbicide 

can then be used for effective control.
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5) Control Problems: 

Fires are most likely to be caused by lightning strikes in the high mountain areas 

or from human ignitions in and around developed sites. Most fires are wind driven 

events of short duration that can generate very high rates of spread (over 100 

chains per hour), flame lengths that exceed 15-30 feet with spotting distances in

excess of one mile ahead of the fire on relatively flat ground. Terrain in much of 

this FMU is rugged and inaccessible by vehicle, and in some cases on foot, 

resulting in delayed detection and long response times. The Park has few 

suppression resources and firefighters available in-house. The closest staffed 

engines are over an hour and a half away from the central section of the Park. The 

closest Helitack resource has a 40-minute response to the same area of the Park. 

6) Values to be protected, managed or at risk: 

There are some patented mining claims, including some with improvements, that 

should be protected from fire. Most are located in canyons on the west side of the 

Panamint Range south of Telescope Peak.

The high elevations of the Panamint Range provide a popular respite from desert 

heat for many Park visitors, particularly during the peak summer months when 

fires are most probable. There are three NPS campgrounds along the road through 

Emigrant Pass toward Telescope Peak: Wildrose Campground (including a 

seasonal ranger station), Thorndike Campground, and Mahogany Flat 

Campground. In the vicinity of Wildrose Campground are several historic 

structures associated with the early administration of the Park as well as cultural 

landscapes. The road corridor between the campgrounds also contains numerous 

spur roads and trail heads that provide access to scenic vistas, historic sites, and 

hiking trails. There are many buildings, signs, and other NPS improvements in 

this area that should be protected from fire. 

There are a number of rare species and cultural resources known to occur in the 

burnable areas of this FMU, although survey is incomplete. The special status 

species includes the occurrence of the federally listed threatened desert tortoise in 

the southern end of the FMU. There are also many cultural resources in this FMU 

that require special consideration. The Resource Advisor Guide (Appendix B) 

includes species specific lists and information. Table 9 is a summary. . 

Table 9. Special status resources in the Panamint Range FMU.

Burnable

Area

Vertebrate

Animals

Vascular

Plants

Cultural

Resources

Panamint Range South 18 bird species

3 bat species

2 reptile species

56 species 14 historical

1 ethno/historical

1 ethnographic

1 unidentified

West Side Road 12 bird species None 2 historical

1 ethnographic

1 unidentified
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d) Fire management objectives for Panamint Range Fire Management Unit.

• In Thorndike and Mahogany Flat Campgrounds, and Wildrose implement full 

suppression with a control strategy. 

• In areas to be managed for suppression, contain fires to less than 10 acres.

• Monitor lightning-caused fires in the fire use zones and manage fires for resource 

benefits where there is minimal risk to other values. 

• Record and document fire behavior, fire effects, burn severity, and post-fire 

succession when possible. 

• As needed, conduct hazard fuel reduction around Park owned structures while 

preserving cultural landscape elements.

e) Management considerations to operational implementation in Panamint Range

Fire Management Unit.

• The northeastern edge of this FMU includes the Stovepipe Wells developed area 

which is where the Parks wildland fire engine is located. The development itself is 

not flammable as it is surrounded by very sparsely vegetated desert and dunes. 

• Avoid suppression impacts to special status plant and animal species.

• In the southern end of the FMU, minimize impact to habitat of the threatened 

desert tortoise and ensure operations activities are conducted in accordance with 

applicable terms and conditions of the biological opinion issued by the U.S. Fish 

and Wildlife Service (2001).

• Protect identified cultural resources from both fire and fire suppression impacts. 

Avoid using fire retardant and avoid direct bucket drops over specific cultural 

resource sites as identified by the resource advisor.

• Retardant and foam use should be avoided in water collection areas, including 

Wildrose Spring and Emigrant Spring. 

• Communicate with Park Rangers regarding fires that could potentially threaten 

the travel corridor from Emigrant Pass to Telescope Peak so that they can 

coordinate timely evacuations from these sites. This corridor has a concentration 

of visitor destinations (campgrounds, trailheads, etc) and limited ingress/egress. 

• Safety issue: There are numerous old mines in this FMU which may include such 

hazards as open shafts and adits as well as unstable explosives. Additionally, 
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unexploded ordinances associated with Fort Irwin military activities have been 

found in the park near its southern boundary. 

f) Fire Management strategies in Panamint Range Fire Management Unit.

Suppression: 389,500 acres will be managed for full suppression, including developed 

areas, historic resources, and desert tortoise habitat. This includes 332,300 acres of 

wilderness that will be managed for suppression for the protection of desert tortoise 

habitat.

Fire Use: 503,900 will be managed for fire use. These acres are located in wilderness in 

remote locations where suppression action is not practical and there are no structures or 

known resources at risk from fire. These acres include many high elevation shrublands

and woodland vegetation communities that could benefit from fire. However, local 

cultural or natural resources may exist and a resource advisor should be consulted before 

an ignition is managed for fire use.

Mechanical Fuel Reduction: The campgrounds should be treated to remove branches that 

overhang fire pits. Historical sites with structures should be treated to remove hazardous 

fuels that could result in direct flame impingement of buildings or other cultural 

properties. All mechanical fuel reduction in historical sites must be coordinated with 

cultural resource management staff to protect cultural landscape elements. 

Restoration and Rehabilitation: Burned area emergency response should focus on postfire watershed effects on the campgrounds and roads. Suppression rehab should focus on 

evaluation of impacts to special status resources. Emergency stabilization efforts should 

include consideration of the numerous mine shafts, adits, and structures that may 

represent both historic resources as well as safety hazards. For rehabilitation work in the 

southern end of this FMU, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service should be consulted 

regarding potential impacts to desert tortoise and post-fire treatments should focus on 

tortoise habitat restoration including possible plantings of native shrubs if needed as well 

as removal of invasive plant species. 
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III.D.5. Black Mountains Fire Management Unit

a) Physical characteristics of Black Mountains Fire Management Unit 

Table 10. Summary of Black Mountains FMU

Total size 886,400 acres

Wilderness 776,900 acres

Suppression 394,400 acres

Fire Use 492,000 acres

Elevational Range 282 feet below sea level to 5033 feet above sea level

Burnable Vegetation 52,900 acres

Fire Regime based on 

Vegetation Communities

(Taken from Thomas et al. 2004, 

but does not include classification 

of extreme northeast corner)

2100 acres non-fuel: human development or land use

69,600 acres non-fuel: barren or very sparsely vegetated

620,200 acres low elevation desert shrublands

192,000 acres middle elevation desert shrublands and woodland

1100 acres high elevation desert shrublands and woodland

The Black Mountains FMU is 886,400 acres (Table 10, Figure 9) and covers the east 

central and southeast area of Death Valley National Park. The southern and eastern 

boundaries of the FMU are coincident with the Park boundary. The northern boundary is 

defined by State Highway 374. The western boundary is defined by State Highway 190

then veers southwest along the maintained hiking trail that runs from Salt Creek along the 

west side of Cotton Ball Basin until it intersects with the West Side Road, then follows 

the West Side Road until it intersects with Highway 267 at Ashford Junction, then 

follows the 4x4 road south along the Amargosa River to the Parks southern boundary. 

The Black Mountains FMU includes 776,900 acres of wilderness. It is bisected northsouth by the Amargosa Range. The Black Mountains run north-south through the central 

and southern portions of the FMU. On the west side of the Black Mountains is the main 

body of Death Valley, including Badwater Basin. To the east of the Black Mountains lies 

the Greenwater Valley and east of that is the Greenwater Range. To the north of the 

Black Mountains is another member of the Amargosa Range, the northwest-southeast 

trending Funeral Mountains. Between the Black Mountains and the Funeral Mountains 

lies the Furnace Creek Wash and the Highway 190 corridor. Elevation in this FMU 

ranges from 282 feet below sea level at Badwater Basin (the lowest point in the United 

States) to 5033 feet above sea level at Winters Peak in the Funeral Mountains. 

The Black Mountains FMU is contiguous with Bureau of Land Management Las Vegas 

Field Office (NV) on the east side and the Bureau of Land Management Barstow Field 

Office (CA) on the south side. The north and west boundaries of this FMU are inside the 

Park.
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b) Historic role of fire in Black Mountains Fire Management Unit

Prior to 2006, fire history analysis indicates that the Black Mountains FMU had not 

supported any documented fires in the last 20 years. In July 2006, two large fires were 

started by lightning near the Calico Peaks in the Black Mountains just west of 

Greenwater Valley. The Gold Valley fire burned 480 acres of blackbrush shrubland and 

creosote bush shrubland. A few days later, the Calico Fire burned 9280 acres of 

blackbrush shrubland and creosote bush shrubland, making this the largest fire in the 

Park’s history to date. The non-native red brome served as the primary carrier fuel in both 

of these fires. 

The Black Mountains FMU includes approximately 52,900 acres of burnable vegetation. 

The largest concentration of burnable acres is in the Greenwater Valley and surrounding 

slopes which supports a fairly continuous cover of blackbrush shrublands. There are also

a few very small pockets of sagebrush woodland along the eastern side of the Black 

Mountains and a few pockets of Joshua tree woodland in the Greenwater Range. There is 

a mesquite bosque at Saratoga Springs that is burnable. There are mesquite trees and 

various burnable landscape plants, particularly palms, in the Furnace Creek and Cow 

Creek developed areas. 

While there is much that is not known about natural fire regimes of desert vegetation 

communities, fire certainly is part of the natural ecology of at least some communities. 

Brooks and Minnich (2006) have recently characterized historic fire regimes of the 

California desert. Joshua tree woodland and blackbrush shrublands have high fuel 

continuity. The historic fire regime was likely characterized by relatively moderate to 

large sized, patchy to complete, moderate intensity, surface to crown fires, and a long fire 

return interval. The heavy fuel load and high fuel continuity of mesquite bosques result in 

high intensity crown fires with limited capacity to spread due to the sparse desert fuels 

surrounding the bosques.

c) Wildland fire management situation in Black Mountains Fire Management 

Unit

1) Historical weather analysis: 

Most precipitation in Death Valley National Park comes in late winter and early 

spring, occurring as rain in the lower elevation and snow in the higher elevations. 

Summer precipitation occurs primarily as localized and generally heavy 

thunderstorms. It usually occurs in the afternoon and evening after diurnal heating 

of the land sets up convection type air movements. These storms move fast; the 

period of rainfall is of short duration and is accompanied by high winds, thunder 

and lightning. Usually these storms begin by the beginning of July under a monsoon type pattern that persists until the end of September. 

The only weather station in the Black Mountains FMU is the manual station at 

Furnace Creek at -190 feet in elevation, which is applicable to the mesquite bosques 
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but has limited applicability to the blackbrush shrublands in Greenwater Valley. 

Unfortunately there are no weather stations in or near this FMU, including those in 

Nevada, that are at similar elevation and fuels as the burnable areas in Greenwater 

Valley. 

2) Fire Season: 

Lower elevation vegetation communities can and do burn at any time of year, 

although fire is unlikely to carry at any time due to the widely spaced fuels. 

Mesquite bosques can likewise burn at any time of year but are most likely to 

burn during the hot dry winds of late summer. The Joshua tree woodland and 

blackbrush shrublands can generally carry fire after the spring annual vegetation 

cures, generally April through September in this FMU. 

3) Fuel characteristics in relation to fire behavior:

Brooks and Minnich (2006) characterized fuel conditions in relation to fire 

behavior for California desert fuels. Joshua tree woodland and blackbrush 

shrublands can carry fire in any year, but fire frequency and size may be increased 

by abundant winter moisture which serves to increase the fine fuel load between 

the shrubs. The high flammability of blackbrush allows most fires to crown in this 

community.

Mesquite bosques grow in wet areas and thus are less influenced by live fuel 

moisture than by weather. Observations indicate that high winds and low relative 

humidity allow fire to carry through this community aided by the thick 

accumulations of duff between plants and tightly spaced crowns. 

4) Fire regime alteration: 

Where red brome (Bromus madritensis ssp. rubens) has invaded, it can increase 

fuel continuity within the Joshua tree woodlands and blackbrush shrublands. Its 

effect is most pronounced in years of abundant winter moisture and in the lower 

elevational zones of these communities where the native fine fuels tend to be 

widely spaced.

Where saltcedar (Tamarix spp.) has invaded mesquite bosques, they can greatly 

increase the flammability of the site and will readily re-invade after fire. 

However, prescribed fire can be used to force saltcedar to re-sprout and herbicide 

can then be used for effective control.

5) Control Problems: 

Fires are most likely to be caused by lightning strikes in the high mountain areas 

or from human ignitions in and around developed sites. Most fires are wind driven 

events of short duration that can generate very high rates of spread (over 100 
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chains per hour), flame lengths that exceed 15-30 feet with spotting distances in

excess of one mile ahead of the fire on relatively flat ground. Terrain in much of 

this FMU is rugged and inaccessible by vehicle, and in some cases on foot, 

resulting in delayed detection and long response times. The Park has few 

suppression resources and firefighters available in-house. The closest staffed 

engines are over an hour and a half away from the central section of the Park. The 

closest Helitack resource has a 40-minute response to the same area of the Park. 

6) Values to be protected, managed or at risk: 

This FMU includes the Park’s primary developed area at Furnace Creek which 

includes campgrounds, headquarters offices, and visitor center. There is also 

private land within the Furnace Creek developed area that supports various 

commercial developments such as hotels and restaurants. The Cow Creek 

developed area is located four miles north of Furnace Creek and includes NPS 

offices and maintenance facilities as well as the Park’s main employee housing

area. The Timbisha residential community is located immediately south of 

Furnace Creek. Combined these areas compose the largest concentration of 

commercial and residential activity in the Park. 

There are a number of rare species and cultural resources known to occur in the 

burnable areas of this FMU, although survey is incomplete. The special status 

species includes the occurrence of the federally listed threatened desert tortoise in 

the Greenwater Valley burnable area and the state-listed Saratoga Springs pupfish 

in the Saratoga Springs burnable area. There are also many cultural resources in 

this FMU that require special consideration. The Resource Advisor Guide 

(Appendix B) includes species specific lists and information. A brief summary is 

provided here in Table 11. 

Table 11. Special status resources in the Black Mountains FMU.

Burnable

Area

Vertebrate

Animals

Vascular

Plants

Cultural

Resources

Furnace Creek 23 bird species

1 bat species

1 mammal species

4 species 1 prehistoric

Greenwater Valley 7 bird species

1 reptile species

2 species 3 historical

1 archaeological

Saratoga Springs 9 bird species

1 bat species

1 fish species

1 species 1 archaeological

d) Fire management objectives for Black Mountains Fire Management Unit.

• In the developed areas implement full suppression with a control strategy. 

• In areas to be managed for suppression, contain fires to less than 10 acres.
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• Monitor lightning-caused fires in the fire use zones and manage fires for resource 

benefits where there is minimal risk to other values. 

• Record and document fire behavior, fire effects, burn severity, and post-fire 

succession when possible. 

• As needed, conduct hazard fuel reduction around Park owned structures while 

preserving cultural landscape elements.

e) Management considerations to operational implementation in Black Mountains 

Fire Management Unit.

• The Park’s fixed wing aircraft is stored at the Furnace Creek Airport in this FMU. 

Additionally, the Park’s main fire cache is located at Cow Creek Administrative 

Area in this FMU.

• Avoid suppression impacts to special status plant and animal species.

• In the Greenwater Valley, minimize impact to habitat of the threatened desert 

tortoise and ensure operations activities are conducted in accordance with 

applicable terms and conditions of the biological opinion issued by the U.S. Fish 

and Wildlife Service.

• In the Greenwater Valley, protect historical resources and cultural landscapes 

associated with the historical mining town.

• Protect identified cultural resources from both fire and fire suppression impacts. 

Avoid using fire retardant and avoid direct bucket drops over specific cultural 

resource sites as identified by the resource advisor.

• Retardant and foam use should be avoided in developed areas as well as water 

collection areas, including Travertine Springs, Texas Springs, and Nevares

Spring. 

• Avoid retardant and foam use near any springs to avoid chemical contamination 

of habitat for rare and endemic fish populations. This is particularly a concern at 

Saratoga Springs as this location has both burnable vegetation as well as rare 

pupfish in the same area. 

• Under no circumstances should water be drafted or dipped for firefighting 

purposes from Saratoga Springs, Amargosa River, Salt Creek, or Cottonball 

Marsh.

• Water drafted or dipped from other natural sites should not be discharged into or 

adjacent to any spring or creek due to the potential for biological contamination of 

this critical habitat.
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• Communicate with Park Rangers regarding fires that could potentially threaten 

the developed area or inhibit travel along Highway 190 so that they can 

coordinate timely evacuation and/or direct traffic. 

• Safety issue: There are numerous old mines in this FMU which may include such 

hazards as open shafts and adits as well as unstable explosives. Additionally, 

unexploded ordinances associated with Fort Irwin military activities have been 

found in the Park near the southern boundary. 

f) Fire Management strategies in Black Mountains Fire Management Unit.

Suppression: 394,400 acres will be managed for full suppression, including developed 

areas, historic resources, and desert tortoise habitat. This includes 285,000 acres of 

wilderness that will be managed for suppression for the protection of desert tortoise 

habitat.

Fire Use: 492,000 will be managed for fire use. These acres are located in wilderness in 

remote locations where suppression action is not practical and there are no structures or 

known resources at risk from fire. However, local cultural or natural resources may exist 

and a resource advisor should be consulted before an ignition is managed for fire use.

Mechanical Fuel Reduction: The campgrounds should be treated to remove branches that 

overhang fire pits. Within the developed area hazardous fuels should be removed that 

could result in direct flame impingement of buildings or other cultural properties. All 

mechanical fuel reduction in the developed area must be coordinated with cultural 

resource management staff to protect cultural landscape elements. 

Restoration and Rehabilitation: Burned area emergency response should focus on postfire watershed effects on the desert springs and creeks as well as the developed areas and 

roads. Emergency stabilization efforts should include consideration of the numerous mine 

shafts, adits, and structures that may represent both historic resources as well as safety 

hazards. Suppression rehab should focus on evaluation of impacts to special status 

resources. For rehabilitation work in the Greenwater Valley, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife 

Service should be consulted regarding potential impacts to desert tortoise and post-fire 

treatments should focus on tortoise habitat restoration including possible plantings of 

native shrubs if needed as well as removal of invasive plant species. 
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III.D.6. Grapevine Mountains Fire Management Unit

a) Physical characteristics of Grapevine Mountains Fire Management Unit 

Table 12 Summary of the Grapevine Mountains FMU

Total size 339,200 acres

Wilderness 269,300 acres

Suppression 69,900 acres

Fire Use 269,300 acres

Elevational Range Sea level to 8736 feet above sea level

Burnable Vegetation 82,800 acres

Fire Regime based on 

Vegetation Communities

(Taken from Thomas et al. 2004, 

but does not include classification 

of eastern corner in Nevada)

2 acres non-fuel: human development or land use

17,100 acres non-fuel: barren or very sparsely vegetated

170,700 acres low elevation desert shrublands

32,600 acres middle elevation desert shrublands and woodland

14,367 acres high elevation desert shrublands and woodland

The Grapevine Mountains FMU is 339,200 acres (Table 12, Figure 10) and covers the 

east central and northeast area of Death Valley National Park. The eastern boundary of 

the FMU is coincident with the Park boundary. The northern boundary is defined by the 

Scotty’s Castle Road (Inyo County’s Bonnie Claire Road). The western boundary is 

defined by the Scotty’s Castle Road (Inyo County’s Bonnie Claire Road), then across 

from Red Wall Canyon it follows a historic road (now closed) southwest, then south to 

the Cottonwood Canyon road, then southeasterly on that road to CA State Highway 190 

at Stovepipe Wells. The southern boundary is defined by California State Highway 190, a 

very short segment of the Scotty’s Castle Road (Inyo County’s Bonnie Claire Road), and 

the Mud Canyon / Daylight Pass Road.

The Grapevine Mountains FMU includes 269,300 acres of wilderness. It is defined by the 

northwest-southeast trending Grapevine Mountains of the Amargosa Range that sit along 

the state line between California and Nevada. On the southwest side of the Grapevine 

Mountains is the Mesquite Flats area of Death Valley. To the northeast of the Grapevine 

Mountains lies the Sarcobatus Flat. Elevation in this FMU ranges from sea level near 

Stovepipe Wells to 8736 feet above sea level at Grapevine Peak in Nevada. 

The Grapevine Mountains FMU is contiguous with Bureau of Land Management 

Tonopah Field Office (NV) on the east side. All other boundaries of this FMU are inside 

the Park.
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Death Valley National Park

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b) Historic role of fire in Grapevine Mountains Fire Management Unit

Two fires from the 1970’s reported occurred near Scotty’s Castle and Scotty’s Ranch 

respectively, but information about these fires is very incomplete. In 1996 a five acre 

human caused fire occurred in the Grapevine Mountains, but the exact location is not 

known. In late July 2006, the Bullfrog Fire burned 3710 acres of creosote bush shrubland 

near Bullfrog Mountain. 

The Grapevine Mountains FMU includes approximately 82,800 acres of burnable 

vegetation. These burnable acres are concentrated in the Grapevine Mountains and the 

Mesquite Flat. The highest elevations include significant expanses of pinyon-juniper 

woodlands with a few pockets of sagebrush woodlands. The mountain slopes support a 

fairly continuous cover of blackbrush. Mesquite Flats supports several disjunct mesquite 

bosques. 

While there is much that is not known about natural fire regimes of desert vegetation 

communities, fire certainly is part of the natural ecology of at least some communities. 

Brooks and Minnich (2006) have recently characterized historic fire regimes of the 

California desert. The historic fire regime of pinyon-juniper woodlands was likely 

characterized by relatively large, patchy to complete, moderate intensity surface to crown 

fires, and a long fire return interval. Fires in sagebrush woodlands are patchy to complete, 

moderate intensity passive crown to crown fires, depending on the continuity of the 

woody shrub fuels. At the interface between sagebrush and pinyon-juniper woodlands a 

surface to passive crown fire regime is the norm as fire spreads through woody and 

herbaceous surface fuels and occasionally torches individual trees. Most fires in these 

communities are stand-replacing events where most of the individual plants die and 

recovery takes decades. Blackbrush shrublands have high fuel continuity. The historic 

fire regime was likely characterized by relatively moderate to large sized, patchy to 

complete, moderate intensity, surface to crown fires, and a long fire return interval. The 

heavy fuel load and high fuel continuity of mesquite bosques result in high intensity 

crown fires with limited capacity to spread due to the sparse desert fuels surrounding the 

bosques.

c) Wildland fire management situation in Grapevine Mountains Fire 

Management Unit

1) Historical weather analysis: 

Most precipitation in Death Valley National Park comes in late winter and early 

spring, occurring as rain in the lower elevation and snow in the higher elevations. 

Summer precipitation occurs primarily as localized and generally heavy 

thunderstorms. It usually occurs in the afternoon and evening after diurnal heating 

of the land sets up convection type air movements. These storms move fast; the 

period of rainfall is of short duration and is accompanied by high winds, thunder 

and lightning. Usually these storms begin by the beginning of July under a monsoon type pattern that persists until the end of September. 
Death Valley National Park

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There are no weather stations in this FMU. The automated NOAA station at 

Stovepipe Wells (http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/crn/hourly?stidx=1105) is at sea level 

in desert scrub and would be the best reference for fires on Mesquite Flat. The 

manual station at Stovepipe Wells is no longer in operation; however, its past 

records are in Cow Creek curatorial storage. The Hunter Mountain RAWS is at 

6880 feet in pinyon-juniper and sagebrush and would be the best reference for fires 

in the Grapevine Mountains, although it is some distance away. 

2) Fire Season: 

Lower elevation vegetation communities can and do burn at any time of year, 

although fire is unlikely to carry at any time due to the widely spaced fuels. 

Mesquite bosques can likewise burn at any time of year but are most likely to 

burn during the hot dry winds of late summer. The blackbrush shrublands can 

generally carry fire after the spring annual vegetation cures, generally April

through September in this FMU. The pinyon-juniper woodlands in the Grapevine 

Mountains do not as much snow as in the Parks western ranges and so can 

generally burn anytime from April through October, but burn most readily in midsummer after the heaviest woody fuels have dried out. 

3) Fuel characteristics in relation to fire behavior:

Brooks and Minnich (2006) characterized fuel conditions in relation to fire 

behavior for California desert fuels. Fire spread can occur most any time of year

in sagebrush steppe, although it is more likely when live fuel moisture is low 

during prolonged drought or fine fuel loads are high following winter moisture, or 

during periods of high winds and low relative humidity. Fire spread in pinyonjuniper woodlands is most probable when live fuel moisture and relative humidity 

are low and winds are high. Under extreme burning conditions characterized by 

high wind and low relative humidity, both communities may experience high 

intensity crown fires with rapid rates of spread. Joshua tree woodland and 

blackbrush shrublands can carry fire in any year, but fire frequency and size may 

be increased by abundant winter moisture which serves to increase the fine fuel 

load between the shrubs. The high flammability of blackbrush allows most fires to 

crown in this community.

Mesquite bosques grow in wet areas and thus are less influenced by live fuel 

moisture than by weather. Observations indicate that high winds and low relative 

humidity allow fire to carry through this community aided by the thick 

accumulations of duff between plants and tightly spaced crowns. 

4) Fire regime alteration: 

Where cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) is established in sagebrush, it serves to carry 

fire along the surface between widely spaced shrub crowns. This can greatly 

increase fire size, changing a single shrub torching to a spreading fire. The 
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influence of cheatgrass is less pronounced in closed canopy sagebrush where the 

canopy itself carries the fire. In pinyon woodlands, cheatgrass has a limited 

influence due to the self-pruning of the trees; however, on steep slopes it can 

serve as a ladder fuel carrying surface fire into the crown. As pinyon has thin 

bark, individual trees might be killed by burning cheatgrass around their bases 

even if the fire does not reach the crown. 

Where red brome (Bromus madritensis ssp. rubens) has invaded, it can increase 

fuel continuity within the blackbrush shrublands. Its effect is most pronounced in 

years of abundant winter moisture and in the lower elevational zones of these 

communities where the native fine fuels tend to be widely spaced.

Where saltcedar (Tamarix spp.) has invaded mesquite bosques, it can greatly 

increase the flammability of the site and will readily re-invade after fire. 

However, prescribed fire can be used to force saltcedar to re-sprout and herbicide 

can then be used for effective control.

5) Control Problems: 

Fires are most likely to be caused by lightning strikes in the high mountain areas 

or from human ignitions in and around developed sites. Most fires are wind driven 

events of short duration that can generate very high rates of spread (over 100 

chains per hour), flame lengths that exceed 15-30 feet with spotting distances in

excess of one mile ahead of the fire on relatively flat ground. Terrain in much of 

this FMU is rugged and inaccessible by vehicle, and in some cases on foot, 

resulting in delayed detection and long response times. The Park has few 

suppression resources and firefighters available in-house. The closest staffed 

engines are over an hour and a half away from the central section of the Park. The 

closest Helitack resource has a 40-minute response to the same area of the Park. 

6) Values to be protected, managed or at risk: 

This FMU includes the Grapevine Ranger Station and employee housing area, but 

the area is surrounded by sparsely vegetated desert that is unlikely to carry fire. 

There are a number of rare species and cultural resources known to occur in the 

burnable areas of this FMU, although survey is incomplete. The special status 

species includes the occurrence of the federally listed threatened desert tortoise in 

the southern end of the FMU. There are a number of rare species in this FMU, 

including a small area of creosote bush scrubland that is occupied by desert 

tortoise. There are many special status species in the burnable areas of this FMU, 

particularly the many rare plant species found in the Grapevine Mountains. There 

are also a few cultural resources in this FMU that require special consideration, 

although cultural surveys in the recently acquired park lands are substantially 

incomplete and there is a very high probability that more cultural resources exist 
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in this area. The Resource Advisor Guide (Appendix B) includes species specific 

lists and information. A brief summary is provided here in Table 13. 

Table13. Special status resources in the Grapevine Mountains FMU.

Burnable

Area

Vertebrate

Animals

Vascular

Plants

Cultural

Resources

Mesquite Flat 4 bird species none 1 prehistoric/historic

Grapevine Mountains 8 bird species

3 bat species

1 mammal species

1 reptile species

50 species 1 historic

1 prehistoric

1 ethno/historic

1 unidentified

d) Fire management objectives for Grapevine Mountains Fire Management Unit.

• In the developed area implement full suppression with a control strategy. 

• In areas to be managed for suppression, contain fires to less than 10 acres.

• Monitor lightning-caused fires in the fire use zones and manage fires for resource 

benefits where there is minimal risk to other values. 

• Record and document fire behavior, fire effects, burn severity, and post-fire 

succession when possible. 

• As needed, conduct hazard fuel reduction around Park owned structures while 

preserving cultural landscape elements.

e) Management considerations to operational implementation in Grapevine 

Mountains Fire Management Unit.

• Avoid suppression impacts to special status plant and animal species.

• In the area along the Daylight Pass Road, minimize impact to habitat of the 

threatened desert tortoise and ensure operations activities are conducted in 

accordance with applicable terms and conditions of the biological opinion issued 

by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (2001).

• Protect identified cultural resources from both fire and fire suppression impacts. 

Avoid using fire retardant and avoid direct bucket drops over specific cultural 

resource sites as identified by the resource advisor.

• Retardant and foam use should be avoided in water collection areas, including 

Surprise Spring. 

• Communicate with Park Rangers regarding fires that could potentially threaten 

the Grapevine Ranger Station or inhibit travel along the Scotty’s Castle Road 
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(Inyo County’s Bonnie Claire Road) or the Daylight Pass Road so that they can 

coordinate timely evacuation and/or direct traffic. 

• Safety issue: There are numerous old mines in this FMU which may include such 

hazards as open shafts and adits as well as unstable explosives.

f) Fire Management strategies in Grapevine Mountains Fire Management Unit.

Suppression: 69,900 acres will be managed for full suppression, including developed 

areas, travel corridors, and desert tortoise habitat. No wilderness acres will be managed 

for suppression.

Fire Use: 269,300 will be managed for fire use. These acres are located in wilderness in 

remote locations where suppression action is not practical and there are no structures or 

known resources at risk from fire. However, local cultural or natural resources may exist 

and a resource advisor should be consulted before an ignition is managed for fire use.

Mechanical Fuel Reduction: There are no hazardous fuels projects planned in this FMU.

Restoration and Rehabilitation: Burned area emergency response should focus on postfire watershed effects on the road corridors. Emergency stabilization efforts should 

include consideration of the numerous mine shafts, adits, and structures that may 

represent both historic resources as well as safety hazards. Suppression rehab should 

focus on evaluation of impacts to special status resources. For rehabilitation along State 

Highway 374, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service should be consulted regarding potential 

impacts to desert tortoise and post-fire treatments should focus on tortoise habitat 

restoration including possible plantings of native shrubs if needed as well as removal of 

invasive plant species. 
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IV. FIRE MANAGEMENT COMPONENTS 

IV.A. Wildland Fire Suppression

Fire Suppression Program

The Park has been managed for full suppression since its inception, although records 

have only consistently been kept in the last 20 years. The most recent fire management 

plan was completed in 1990 (NPS 1990) and outlined operational procedures for fire 

suppression.

Wildland fire is naturally restricted to areas where there is sufficient vegetation to support 

the active spread of fire ignited by lightning and humans engaged in a variety of 

activities, described as “burnable areas” within this document. Significant wildfire events 

have occurred in areas of higher elevation that support a variety of vegetation types that 

support active fire spread. These areas are generally located in remote areas far from 

occupied and/or developed areas of the Park. Another area where wildfire has been 

suppressed is in lower elevation riparian areas that usually are closer or immediately 

adjacent to developed areas.

Death Valley National Park provides many challenges not encountered in areas that have 

received more attention from fire researchers. The lack of readily scarring trees precludes 

dendrochronological studies. The lack of significant water bodies eliminates the 

possibility of sediment cores. Spotty and often incomplete historical documentation is 

currently the only record of fire over a temporal scale, with 54 fires recorded since 1975. 

Most of these fires were very small, less than 1 acre (Figure 11). But a few demonstrate 

the potential for very large fires that move extremely fast such as the human-caused 

Happy Fire in 2000 that burned around 5,000 acres of Pinyon in three hours and the 

Calico Fire in 2006 that burned almost 10,000 acres in two days, carried by non-native 

red brome. 

Both the published literature and Park records (Table 14) indicate that fires in Death 

Valley National Park are infrequent, very small and often contained to a small clump of 

trees or bushes. However at the higher elevations, especially those with high densities of 

pinyon, large fires can be expected. With fire return intervals of 50 to more than 100 

years, mature pinyon pine often experience high intensity, stand-replacing fires.
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Table 14. Documented fires over 1 acre.

Yea Fire Name Location Cause Acres

1975 Scottys Ranch Scottys Ranch Human 70

1979 Badwater Badwater Unknown 2

1980 Unnamed Mormon Point Lightning 3

1983 Unnamed Scottys Castle Human 4

1983 Sandy Lemoigne Canyon Lightning 181

1984 Saline Hunter Mountain Lightning 5900

1984 White Horse Lemoigne Canyon Jet crash 833

1984 Butte Panamint Butte Lightning 600

1987 Saline2 Hunter Mountain Lightning 400

1990 LF2 Wildrose Canyon Lightning 10.5

1990 Hunter Hunter Mountain Unknown 140

1996 Grapevine Grapevine Mountains Human 5

1998 Unnamed Cottonwood Mountains Unknown 1.5

2000 Happy Happy Canyon Human 5500

2005 Butte Valley Butte Valley Lightning 100

2005 Townes Pass Townes Pass Lightning 350

2006 Bullfrog Bullfrog Mountain Lightning 3710

2006 Butte 2 Butte Valley Lightning 2039

2006 Calico Greenwater Valley Lightning 9280

2006 Gold Valley Greenwater Valley Lightning 480

2006 Saline Nelson Range Lightning 70

Note that some of the older fires do not have recorded geographic coordinates, so are not displayed in Figure 11.

As fire is an infrequent occurrence in the Death Valley National Park, all extended attack 

and some initial action response is by resources responding from surrounding fire centers, 

namely the BLM fire centers in Ridgecrest, California and Pahrump, Nevada. The Park 

maintains a limited in-Park capacity to respond to small fires. The following resources 

are currently available for initial action response within the Park:

• 1 Type 6 Wildland Fire Engine, 300 gallon capacity, 2-wheel drive

• 1 water tender, 5000 gallon

• 1 fixed wing aircraft

• 2 Type I structural engines
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Death Valley National Park

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Fire Weather 

Death Valley is the hottest and driest area of the United States. This is in part due to its 

location in the northern Mojave and southwestern Great Basin Deserts. Mean annual 

precipitation within the Park is low, less than 2 inches per year, except in the higher 

elevations which may exceed 14 inches per year. Year to year variation in precipitation is 

substantial; precipitation at Furnace Creek ranges from no precipitation in some years to 

over 6.44 inches in others. The annual variation in precipitation can significantly affect 

production of annual vegetation, and hence, capability for sustained spread of fire, (a more 

detailed description of regional climatic influences on vegetation and fire occurrence can be 

found in Rowlands (1988)). 

Most precipitation comes in late winter and early spring, occurring as rain in the lower 

elevation and snow in the higher elevations. Summer precipitation is primarily localized 

and generally heavy. It usually occurs in the afternoon and evening after diurnal heating of 

the land sets up convection type air movements. These storms move fast; the period of 

rainfall is of short duration and is accompanied by high winds, thunder and lightning. 

Lightning is, of course, the principal cause of natural fires so it is no wonder that wildland 

fires caused by "dry" storms are particularly prevalent in the southwestern desert areas at 

this time of year. The heavy downpours often result in flash flooding due to the rapid 

runoff of water from the sparsely vegetated desert uplands. Up to 100 mm (4") of precipitation may fall during a single storm. Usually these storms begin by the beginning of July 

under a monsoon type pattern that persists until the end of September. 

Temperatures within the Park are also typified by extremes. Furnace Creek temperatures 

can range from a low of 15 F during January to 129 F in July. During winter months, 

temperature inversions can occur in the valley proper. Relative humidities in the Park can 

reach as low as 10% during summer months on Hunter Mountain (elevation 6880 feet). 

Average summer temperatures at these same elevations can reach 100 F. 

The Park maintains several weather stations that have recorded weather over time and have 

general weather data that may be useful for analysis and determining climatic trends. These 

stations are located throughout the Park. Continuous daily temperature and precipitation 

data have been collected at Furnace Creek since 1911. The Furnace Creek data is 

significant, because this station is the oldest weather collected in the Mojave Desert. The 

Wildrose Ranger Station weather station started recording in 1949, although there are 

significant data gaps when the Station is not staffed. The manual station at Stovepipe Wells 

is no longer in operation; however, its past records are in Cow Creek curatorial storage. 

There is currently an automated station at Stovepipe Wells operated by the National 

Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). These stations are summarized in 

Table 15.
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Table 15. Weather stations in or near Death Valley National Park.

Station Name /

Owner

Station 

Type

Elevation Representative

Vegetation

Data 

Reporting

Location 

Lat/Long

WIMS

NFDRS

Furnace Creek

NPS

Manual (-)190 ft Desert Scrub NOAA East-Central None

Scottys Castle

NPS

Manual 3280 ft Desert Scrub In Park Northeast None

Stovepipe Wells

NOAA

AutomatedSea Level Transitional NOAA Central None

Wildrose R.S.

NPS

(incomplete data)

Manual 4400 ft Pinyon NOAA Central-W 044805

F1A2

Hunter Mountain

NPS

RAWS 6880 ft Pinyon & Juniper 

and Sage 

WIMS Northwest 

117:05:16W

36:07:13 N

NSDIS 

ID#

FA45937

A

Panamint 

BLM-Riverside

RAWS 6880 ft Pinyon & Juniper WIMS Southwest 

117:28:25W

36:33:45 N

044807

Oak Creek 

USFS-Inyo NF

RAWS 4855 ft Bitterbrush & 

Sage

WIMS Northwest

118:15:34

36:50:33

044804

F1A1

The three remote automated weather stations (RAWS) stations and the manual station at 

Wildrose are cataloged and have identifiers as WIMS stations. The Hunter RAWS station 

was previously owned and operated by BLM-Ridgecrest (Bureau of Land Management 

2006b). Panamint RAWS is currently owned by BLM but operated by the Park with 

ownership expected to be transferred to Death Valley in the near future. For wildland fire 

behavior analysis and predictions the Hunter Mountain, Panamint and Oak Creek RAWS 

sites are of most value as these weather stations are representative of the upper elevation 

vegetation types that are most likely to support significant fire events. Additional RAWS 

stations in lower elevation fuel types (i.e. Joshua tree woodland and blackbrush 

shrubland) would be valuable for monitoring fire weather conditions as well as 

understanding the trigger points associated with desert fire behavior.

A simple analysis of fires over 50 acres and RAWS weather collected and archived 

during these occurrences gives basic parameters in which Death Valley National Park has 

experienced significant fire behavior. Generally, large fires have occurred during June, 

July or August during or just after the onset of drought conditions: 1984 was a moderate 

drought year that continued into severe drought years of 1987 and 1988. Localized 

weather conditions that resulted and supported significant fire spread include 

temperatures above 90 F at the 6,000-foot level, minimum humidity below 25%, and 

wind speeds greater than 20 miles per hour. 
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Aviation Management

There is a variety of aircraft used in fire operations within Death Valley National Park, 

with one fixed wing aircraft permanently stationed within the Park.

It is the policy of Death Valley National Park to use its aircraft for activities involving 

life or health-threatening emergencies, the administration and/or protection of resources, 

research, and for individually approved special purpose missions. The objective of every 

flight is to be the safest, most efficient, economic and effective method of performing the 

required task, consistent with National Park Service goals. All administrative use of 

aircraft will comply with the policies and guidelines contained in the Departmental 

Manual 350-354, Director’s Order/Reference Manual #60: Aviation Management; 

applicable Office of Aircraft Services (OAS) policies and the operational procedures 

outlined in this plan. The number one concern at all times is safety.

For safety purposes, low altitude flights, helicopter or fixed wing, will be avoided to the 

extent practicable. Furthermore, low altitude flight directly over wild animals or areas of 

visitor concentration will be avoided at all times unless such an activity is the express 

purpose of the flight (e.g., search and rescue operation in a visitor use area).

Natural openings may be utilized as helispots. No site marking or improvements of any 

type will be permitted, except in conjunction with specific emergencies, after which the 

area will be restored.

For fixed wing aircraft, landing areas will generally be confined to designated airstrips, 

and those areas (i.e. paved roads, dirt roads, etc.) approved by the pilot according to the 

criteria identified in the Aviation Plan.

During fire incidents, temporary flight restrictions should be considered as there are 

several military training routes in the Park that could pose a risk to firefighting resources, 

both on the ground (wash from aircraft could increase fire intensity and rates of spread) 

as well as aviation resources supporting the fire incident. 

Fire Readiness

Preparedness is work done in advance of fire occurrence to ensure effective action. These 

activities include recruitment, hiring, training, planning and organization, maintaining 

fire equipment, procuring supplies and equipment, pre-positioning resources, weather and 

risk analysis, pre-attack planning, and preparedness levels. Most of these activities are the 

responsibility of the Zone Fire Management Officer, including the annual readiness 

review conducted each spring before fire season. However, the Death Valley Chief 

Ranger, or their designee, will:

• Review annually the California Desert Districts “Staffing and Specific Action 

Plan” to assure that it meets the needs of the Park for management of wildland 

fire incidents. 
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• Annually prepare a Delegation of Authority for the Bureau of Land 

Management Ridgecrest Field Office Fire Management Officer to serve in the 

same capacity for the Park. Incident specific Delegations of Authority will be 

written as needed.

• Continue to work with the Zone Fire Management Officer to develop a cadre 

of qualified firefighters, trained and equipped for initial action.

• Establish or maintain interagency contacts and agreements for additional 

resources necessary to control or manage wildland fire in compliance with 

this Fire Management Plan. 

Detection

There is not an effective system to detect all new wildfire starts within the Park. Most 

starts are reported by visitors, patrolling Park staff and the reporting from commercial, 

private and Park owned aircraft. There is no fixed detection system in place in the Park 

(lookouts). Response to reported fires are often delayed due to distance from staffed 

stations. It is assumed a substantial portion of wildland fires started within the Park 

extinguish themselves before they are detected and reported. This is due to the dominant 

vegetation types that typically restrict fire spread unless significant wind speeds cause a 

wildland fire to move from surface fuels to tree crowns.

The San Bernardino Federal Interagency Communication System supports a lightning 

detection system with near real-time data availability that is accessible via the Internet. 

The data is available graphically or by latitude/longitude and denotes whether the strike is 

a positive or negative charge. Statistically, positive charges are more likely to ignite fires, 

due to their higher temperature, and strike "clusters" are common and would indicate a 

higher probability of ignition. However, many of the fires within the Park that have been 

correlated to strike data have been ignited by negative strikes. Locations are accurate 

within 30 meters, but this data can only be used to determine the most efficient use of 

aerial detection and land-based patrols, not to locate actual fires. "Sleeper" or "holdover" 

fires that are not detected immediately have been located up to nine days after lightning 

and are most common in the pinyon-juniper fuels. The lightning data can be accessed by 

FICC or the Zone Fire Management Officer’s office in Ridgecrest.

Initial Action

For many wildland fires, the response to wildland fire will be suppression. Suppression will 

be the fire management strategy for all human-caused ignitions, all ignitions that occur in 

a full suppression zone, and natural ignitions in fire use zones when the initial assessment 

(go/no go decision) indicates that managing the fire for resource benefits is not within 

described limits or capabilities at that time. For these or other situations, the Zone Fire 

Management Officer will implement an adequate level of suppression action as the 

appropriate management response. 

As stated in the Fire Policy Review, "fires will be suppressed at minimum cost, 

considering firefighter and public safety, benefits, and values-to-be-protected, consistent 
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with resource objectives." When initial action or other suppression responses are 

unsuccessful in accomplishing the objectives, the Wildland Fire Decsion Support System 

(WFDSS)will be the tool to analyze alternatives, select a new appropriate management 

action, and specify necessary actions.

To better plan for initial action based on potential fire behavior, the computer program 

BehavePlus was used to model expected fire behavior for the four fuel models that cover 

most of the Park. BehavePlus (Andrews et al. 2003) is the most recent evolution of a 

widely used fire modeling system that is a collection of mathematical models that 

describe the fire and the fire environment. Tables 16, 17, and 18 show the expected rate 

of spread and flame height under a range of wind conditions as predicted by BehavePlus.

Table 16: Expected fire behavior under light (0-10 mph) winds

Fuel

model

Local fuel description Rate of Spread 

(chains/hour)

Flame Height

(feet)

1 Annual grasses 297.3 9

2 Open Pinyon-juniper stands with grass/sage 

understory

115.8 11

4 Closed canopy pinyon-juniper stand 131.5 25

8 High elevation timber stands 5.2 5

Table 17: Expected fire behavior under moderate (11-20 mph) winds

Fuel

model

Local fuel description Rate of Spread 

(chains/hour)

Flame Height

(feet)

1 Annual grasses 297.3 9

2 Open Pinyon-juniper stands with grass/sage 

understory

406 20

4 Closed canopy pinyon-juniper stand 346.8 40

8 High elevation timber stands 5.2 5

Table18: Expected fire behavior under high (21+ mph) winds, sustained or 

downdraft

Fuel

model

Local fuel description Rate of Spread 

(chains/hour)

Flame Height

(feet)

1 Annual grasses 297.3 9

2 Open Pinyon-juniper stands with grass/sage 

understory

850.3 28

4 Closed canopy pinyon-juniper stand 614.5 50

8 High elevation timber stands 5.2 5
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Extended Attack

While over 90% of all wildfire incidents never exceed initial action, in the event that a 

suppression response exceeds one operational period (24 hours), the incident will 

transition to extended attack. Fire operations will be determined through the WFDSS 

process. The Incident Commander will re-validate the incident complexity regularly and 

transition to a higher complexity level when necessary as provided for in the Incident 

Complexity Analysis. A Delegation of Authority will be used to convey incident 

management responsibilities.

During emergency incidents additional supplies and equipment beyond the capabilities of 

the local cache may be needed. Cache items may be obtained from the Southern 

California National Interagency Support Cache in Ontario, CA and all emergency cache 

orders will be processed through the Federal Interagency Communications Center or 

Expanded Dispatch.

Fire Prevention and Public Information 

The interpretive division at Death Valley National Park with assistance and support from 

resource management and fire management personnel, will take the lead in developing 

materials that provide factual, straight-forward information about both the general role of 

fire in the ecosystem and about specific projects being conducted in the Park. Material 

handed-out or presented as programs will be geared to a variety of audiences with the aid 

of fire management personnel. These guidelines will apply, depending on the situation:

• The Zone Fire Management Officer or their designee will assist in seasonal 

orientations to provide new personnel a basic knowledge to help them provide 

basic information about Park fire management programs to visitors.

• Handouts and programs explaining fire risk and management will be jointly 

developed by the interpretive and fire management staffs. A public information 

plan will be developed and reviewed annually.

• The Superintendent, Chief Ranger, and Park Public Information Officer will be 

informed by the Zone Fire Management Officer of the status of fires in or near the 

Park and any pertinent management actions. To effectively answer visitor 

questions, dispatch, fee collectors, and patrol rangers will be advised of the status 

of ongoing fires on a daily basis. The visitor center and campground rangers will 

also be kept current on fire situations.

• Appropriate signing or notices will be used to inform the public about on-going 

fires, area or trail closures, smoke, or other special situations. Signs or notices will 

be placed along roadways, at the visitor center, and at affected trailheads, 

campgrounds, and other areas as needed.

• Employees may be stationed at appropriate turnouts or viewpoints to explain the 

situation when fire or smoke is visible near these places. A temporary bulletin 

board may serve as an alternative.

• The ecological concepts for prescribed fire management will be incorporated into 

handouts, books about Park resources, and exhibits. Handouts explaining the fire 
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management program of the NPS and Death Valley National Park will be 

prepared and periodically updated. When use of wildland fire events for resource 

benefits occur, these handouts will be made available for distribution at entrance 

stations, the visitor center, and by all field personnel during their work as they 

make informal contacts.

• The goals and concepts of wildland fire management programs will be 

incorporated into the Park newspaper and when needed into interpretive 

programs, walks, slide and/or video programs, other Park literature, and exhibits.

Particular attention will be given to inclusion in programs and walks when smoke 

is visible from the visitor center or other developed areas.

• The wildland fire management program will be discussed in informal contacts 

with Park concessionaires, special use permittees, Park neighbors, and visitors 

especially when smoke is visible from the visitor center or other developed areas.

• During ongoing fires, new releases will be written for local newspapers, radio, 

and television stations. Media information requests will be directed to the 

superintendent’s office or a designated public information officer to ensure 

consistent and accurate information.

• Neighboring land management agencies, the Timbisha-Shoshone Tribe, mayors, 

and city and county public safety officials will be provided information about 

ongoing fires.

• Public involvement will be sought when major changes are made to the Fire 

Management Plan. The Park will notify neighbors, the Timbisha-Shoshone Tribe, 

in-holders, and local agencies, communities, and news media of changes and their 

expected effects. Every effort will be made to gain public understanding and 

support.

• Each winter, Firewise (a non-profit organization that promotes wildfire prevention 

and preparedness) materials will be mailed directly to all in-holders who have 

structures within the Park boundary. 

Training

The Zone Fire Management Officer will coordinate the annual 8-hour fireline refresher 

training and work capacity test as required to maintain firefighter qualifications for Death 

Valley National Park’s firefighters. Due to the remoteness of much of Death Valley 

National Park, aviation resources are likely to play a substantial role in fire detection and 

management operations. Thus, all permanent fire qualified personnel will strive to attend 

the standard Department of the Interior’s Office of Aviation Safety “B-3 Aviation Safety”

course and maintain currency in order to be available to fly on helicopters and fixed wing 

aircraft used on fire incidents. Additionally, the Zone Fire Management Officer will 

notify the Chief Ranger of any basic firefighter training (S-130 and S-190) or other fire 

training approved by the National Wildfire Coordinating Group that is being offered by 

any partner agencies in the California Desert District. Training and qualification files will 

be maintained by the Park and reviewed annually with fire qualified employees to 

determine additional training needs and interests.
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Death Valley National Park will strive to maintain personnel qualified at the following 

minimum levels as needed to provide adequate staffing of small, local fire incidents and 

to provide an interface with the Zone Fire Management Officer and suppression resources 

from partner fire centers that may operate in the Park on larger incidents:

• 2 engine bosses (ENGB)

• 1 type IV incident commander (ICT4)

• 2 type V incident commanders (ICT5)

• 10 type II firefighters (FFT2)

• 4 helicopter crewmembers (HECM)

• 1 field observer (FOBS)

• 1 fire weather observer

• 2 tender operators

• 1 type III incident information officers (IOF3)

• 1 fire geographic information system technician (GIST)

• 1 fire effects monitors (FEMO)

• 4 resource advisors (READ), including 2 cultural resource specialists and 2 

natural resource specialists

• 1 burned area emergency response specialist (BAES)

The list of current qualifications of Death Valley personnel can be found in Appendix G: 

Operational Considerations.

Safety

Firefighter and public safety is the first priority in every fire management activity. This 

guiding principle is official federal wildland fire management policy and official NPS 

policy. Safety is the responsibility of everyone assigned to a wildland or prescribed fire 

incident. Safety of the public and employees alike must be of prime concern during fires. 

Park administrators and supervisors need to stress that public and employee safety always 

takes precedence over property and resource loss.

The following procedures will be used to mitigate safety risks:

• The Incident Commander or Zone Fire Management Officer will report 

potentially hazardous situations and recommend action to mitigate that hazard to 

the Park Superintendent through the Chief Ranger’s Office. 

• The Incident Commander or Park Safety Committee will conduct a thorough 

review of all accidents, injuries, and near misses that occur during wildland fire 

actions or training. Review all accidents, injuries, and near misses as part of the 

annual wildland fire refresher training. Integrate the findings of safety reviews 

into operational plans and standards.

• The Zone Fire Management Officer and key Park staff will ensure that all Park

personnel involved in wildland and prescribed fire operations will complete all 

medical evaluations as well as required training and refreshers. 
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• All active fires will be routinely monitored and evaluated for public safety 

considerations as conditions change. Portions of the Park may be temporarily 

closed due to fire hazards (intense burning activity, dense smoke, road damage, 

etc.) and temporary flight restrictions may be enacted. 

• When a fire threatens to escape from the Park, adjacent authorities will be given 

as much advance notice as possible in order to achieve orderly evacuation. This 

includes inholdings such as Furnace Creek Ranch and Inn and Panamint Springs 

Resorts.

• The Division of Visitor and Resource Protection is responsible with enforcing 

Park closures. The Incident Commander will insure that closure and informational 

signs concerning ongoing fire management activities are properly posted. 

On fire incidents within the Park, firefighters will be made aware of specific hazards 

within their assigned work area. Special safety concerns in Death Valley National Park 

include the potential for hazardous materials (particularly associated with plane wreckage 

and mine sites), unmarked mine shafts, venomous snakes, steep terrain, and extreme heat.

Job hazard analyses and other safety related information is included in Appendix G: 

Operational Considerations.

Resource Considerations

Because fire suppression activities require numerous incident and site specific decisions 

in the field, the protection of sensitive resources may best be accomplished through a 

generic series of management approaches that are described below. Since the overall 

character of many field situations are difficult to anticipate, it is important that a resource 

advisor be on site during fire suppression activities to provide recommendations to the 

incident commander on which suppression activities should be avoided in particular 

areas. Additional details can be found in the Resource Advisor Guide (Appendix B).

Water

As water is such a limited and important resource in the desert, extreme care must be 

taken to protect water resources from fire suppression activities. The following 

restrictions will be implemented to protect both the rare aquatic resources of the Park as 

well as the on-going use of water for human consumption:

• Water should not be drafted or dipped from any natural surface waters due to the 

potential for damage to endemic pupfish and other rare aquatic organisms. 

Instead, collapsible water tanks (commonly referred to as pumpkins) and water 

engine tenders (semi-trucks) would be used to supply water from developed

sources (hydrants). 

• No improvements will be made to springs or seeps and, in mountainous areas, an 

effort should be made to minimize disturbance to stream banks and channels.

• Fire control strategies will be sensitive to wetland values and fire lines will not 

“tie” into wetland margins except when relying on those areas to naturally retard 

the fire without constructed line.
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• Foam and retardant should not be used within 1⁄2 mile of surface waters.

• Unless flow containment is in place, foam and retardant should not be used within 

two miles of those water collection areas maintained in the park to provide water 

for human consumption: Furnace Creek, Cow Creek, Panamint Springs, Emigrant 

Campground, Wildrose Campground, Mesquite Campground, Grapevine Ranger 

Station, Scottys Castle, and Lower Warm Springs.

• Camps and toilet facilities should be located more than 200 feet from surface 

water resources.

• Pumper trucks and motorized pumps should be kept at a distance from water 

sources to minimize the potential for accidental spillage of fuel in surface waters.

Tortoise

Although there are no designated critical habitats for desert tortoise within the Park, there 

are known populations in the Greenwater Valley. As tortoises are known to be highly 

susceptible to fire effects, all known occupied habitats have been zoned for suppression; 

however, suppression activities must be carefully managed to avoid impacts to tortoise. 

For more detailed discussion about desert tortoise and its habitat characteristics, see the 

recovery plan (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1994). The following recommendations for 

fire suppression activities in Desert Tortoise habitats were developed from Duck et al. 

(1997):

• Resource advisors and monitors should be on call 24 hours. These individuals must 

be appropriately trained in fire and sensitive resources. If tortoise handling may be 

required, resource advisors should also be a qualified tortoise biologist as defined by 

the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

• Tortoise considerations are secondary to issues of human safety. The resource 

advisors shall help to define goals and objectives for fire suppression efforts and will 

inform the Incident Command of any restrictions.

• Hand crews should be used to build and defend fire lines. Engines can be used for 

support from roads. Wherever practical, fire engines remain on roads and lay fire 

hose along hand lines. If off-road vehicle travel is necessary then a crewmember or 

monitor will walk in front to avoid tortoises and shelter sites.

• It is preferred to use air based fire suppression tactics rather than ground based 

equipment off-road to minimize the potential for crushing tortoises and burrows. 

• If the use of heavy equipment becomes necessary then a resource advisor will 

accompany the equipment to move any tortoises out of harms way.

• Backfires may be initiated from roads or control lines where necessary. Islands of 

unburned habitat must not be burned out as a fire suppression measure.

• Notify Federal and State wildlife agencies of damage or injury to Desert Tortoises or

tortoise habitats.

• After the fire, begin rehabilitation of fire lines, especially lines created by tracked 

vehicles. Obliterate vehicle tracks that leave roads to prevent those tracks from 

becoming trails or roads.
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• After the fire, consider vegetation monitoring where appropriate using paired plots 

inside/outside burned areas.

• After the fire, conduct debriefing to evaluate the effectiveness of suppression 

activities and identify successes and failures of Desert Tortoise mitigation efforts. 

Revise procedures as necessary.

Additionally, the Biological Opinion issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (U.S. 

Fish and Wildlife Service 2001) states that:

“The NPS shall ensure that only qualified personnel are allowed to handle 

desert tortoise, conduct clearance surveys, and monitor for compliance 

with the protective measures and terms and conditions of the biological 

opinion.”

“If a wildfire occurred within desert tortoise habitat, the National Park 

Service must use the emergency provisions of section 7(a)(2) at the start of 

the fire fight. The National Park Service would need to assess whether any 

specific proposal to manage fuels may affect the desert tortoise and 

conduct the appropriate level of compliance with section 7(a)(2) of the 

Act.”

Such emergency consultation is generally conducted by the resource advisor assigned to 

the incident. The Incident Commander and the Chief of Resource Management would be 

kept informed of the consultation process. Consultation would be conducted with the 

Ventura Field Office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at 1- 805-644-1766. Results of 

the consultation would be included in the incident documentation. 

Riparian Birds

Fire suppression activities in or near riparian woodlands have the potential to affect the 

federally-listed endangered least Bell’s vireo (Vireo bellii pusillus) and southwestern 

willow flycatcher (Empidonax traillii extimus). As such, riparian woodlands will not be 

subject to prescribed fire unless site specific surveys for these species are conducted and 

consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is completed for that project. Fire 

use will not be allowed in riparian woodlands that have the potential to support these 

birds. Suppression will be the management response for fires in or threatening riparian 

woodlands. However, such suppression activities must be carefully managed to minimize 

impacts on these birds. Birds are most vulnerable to disturbance or fire-related mortality 

during nesting season, which is mid-May to early July for the southwestern willow 

flycatcher and mid-March to late September for the least Bell’s vireo. Both species are 

gone from the area from October through February, so direct mortality or impact is 

highly unlikely during the winter months. Habitat may be affected by fire at any time of 

the year. The recovery plans for these species (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1998, 

2002) should be reviewed for more detailed discussion of habitat characteristics.
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To avoid, minimize, and mitigate impacts to these endangered birds, the following 

mitigation measures will be followed:

• Resource advisors and monitors should be on call 24 hours. These individuals must 

be appropriately trained in fire and sensitive resources. They should be familiar with 

the structural habitat characteristics preferred by these species and, to the extent 

possible, be aware of the locations of nesting sites.

• Riparian bird considerations are secondary to issues of human safety. The resource 

advisors shall help to define goals and objectives for fire suppression efforts and will 

inform the Incident Command of any restrictions. If active nests are present, efforts 

will focus on avoiding suppression activity and travel routes in the nest vicinity while 

taking action to protect those nest sites from fire.

• Hand crews should be used to build and defend fire lines. Engines can be used for 

support from roads. Wherever practical, fire engines remain on roads and lay fire 

hose along hand lines. No off-road vehicle travel is allowed in riparian woodlands. 

• If necessary for fire suppression purposes, fireline will be constructed through 

riparian corridors at the narrowest logical point and will favor the sparsest vegetated 

riparian sections with the least structural diversity. 

• It is preferred to use air based fire suppression tactics rather than ground based 

equipment off-road to minimize the potential for disturbing riparian habitat or 

destroying nests. No chemicals (e.g. fire retardant and class A foam) should be used 

in or near the riparian woodlands due to the potential for contamination of surface 

waters. 

• Backfires may be used from roads or lines where necessary. Islands of unburned 

habitat must not be burned out as a fire suppression measure. 

• Notify Federal and State wildlife agencies of damage or injury to southwestern 

willow flycatcher or least Bell’s vireo birds or nests. 

• After the fire, begin rehabilitation of fire lines, especially lines created by tracked 

vehicles. Obliterate vehicle tracks that leave roads to prevent those tracks from 

becoming trails or roads. If necessary, restrict visitor access to burned over riparian 

corridors to allow these areas to recovery without trampling. Also, use early detection 

and eradication to prevent invasion of non-native salt cedar in burned over native 

riparian corridors Consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on post-fire 

rehabilitation needs and seek money for suppression rehabilitation, emergency 

stabilization, or long-term burned area rehabilitation as appropriate.

• After the fire, begin vegetation monitoring where appropriate. Establish paired plots 

inside/outside burned areas to monitor recovery of vegetation, but be careful that 

monitoring activities are timed to avoid disturbing birds that remain. 

• After the fire, conduct debriefing to evaluate the effectiveness of suppression 

activities and identify successes and failures of riparian bird mitigation efforts. Revise 

procedures as necessary.

Additionally, the Biological Opinion issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (U.S. 

Fish and Wildlife Service 2001) states that:
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“If emergency ground-disturbing activities are necessary in locations 

determined to support these species, the National Park Service could use 

the emergency consultation provisions of the Act (50 CFR 402.05). The 

National Park Service would need to assess whether any specific proposal 

to conduct fire management may affect the southwestern willow flycatcher 

or least Bell’s vireo and conduct the appropriate level of compliance with 

section 79a)(2) of the Act.”

Such emergency consultation is generally conducted by the resource advisor assigned to 

the incident. The Incident Commander and the Chief of Resource Management will be 

kept informed of the consultation process. Consultation will be conducted with the 

Ventura Field Office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at 1- 805-644-1766. Results of 

the consultation will be included in the incident documentation. 
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Wilderness

The California Desert Protection Act of 1994 (CDPA) designated 3,090,489 acres of 

wilderness in Death Valley National Park. This comprises about 91% of the Park’s lands. 

About 80% of these wilderness lands will be treated under a fire use prescription as 

described previously in this document. However, 617,234 acres of wilderness will be 

treated as full suppression for the protection of other values at risk, most notably habitat 

for the threatened desert tortoise, developed areas, and cultural resources.

Management of wilderness is guided by Director’s Order #41, Wilderness Preservation 

and Management. The order directs “Potential disruption of wilderness character and 

resources and applicable safety concerns will be considered before, and given 

significantly more weight than, economic efficiency and convenience. If a compromise of 

wilderness resources or character is unavoidable, only those actions that have localized, 

short term adverse impacts will be acceptable.” In the Mojave Desert, additional guidance 

is found in the Desert Managers Group’s “Principles for Wilderness Management in the 

California Desert” and it’s annexes, including “Annex 5 – Principles for Fire 

Management within Wilderness Areas of the California Desert.” 

Certain fire management activities must be carefully evaluated before implementation 

within designated wilderness. Generally, these activities include the use of motorized 

equipment or mechanized transport. Generally prohibited activities will be considered 

with a wilderness minimum requirement analysis, such as the one prepared for the 

implementation of this Plan (Appendix C). In the event that fire poses an imminent threat 

to life or property, fire suppression activities can be classified as “Emergency Needs” 

and, as such, do not require documented analysis prior to approval of a generally 

prohibited activity or use in wilderness. Authority for approval of emergency use of 

motorized access or mechanized transport can be re-delegated to the Fire Management 

Officer who must provide a written report with justification and alternatives considered to 

the Superintendent. Rationale for authorization will be documented and placed in the 

incident documentation file. Guidelines for such emergency decisions are as follows: 

• A Resource Advisor would be assigned to all extended attack fires occurring in or 

near wilderness. 

• Fire camps and incident command centers would be located outside of wilderness.

• Hand lines in wilderness would be located to make full advantage of natural barriers 

such as rock outcroppings, trails, and dry washes. Handlines would be no wider than 

necessary to stop the spread of fire.

• Within wilderness chain saws, helicopters, or pumps would only be used when 

essential to meet critical suppression objectives, but with due consideration to impacts 

on wilderness character and subject to minimum tool determination.

• Establishment of heliports and helipads are not allowed in wilderness.

• For fire management purposes, it is generally possible to use unimproved helispots in 

wilderness and walk into the work site if such an unimproved helispot is available 

within a 15 minute walking distance. 
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• To the extent possible, non-emergency use of helispots in wilderness would be 

avoided. If it cannot be avoided, the decision to use a helispot in wilderness would be 

detailed in a Wilderness Minimum Requirement Analysis as well as an environmental 

compliance document (i.e. the Environmental Assessment or Categorical Exclusion).

• Note that only fugitive retardant is approved for use in Death Valley National Park; 

fire management activities in Wilderness will avoid using red retardant.

Cultural Resources

Death Valley National Park contains a vast number of cultural resources including 

archeological, historical, ethnographic, traditional cultural properties, and cultural 

landscapes possessing varying levels of significance, integrity, interpretive value, and 

level of documentation. The Resources Management Division staff of Death Valley 

National Park has the responsibility of identifying, inventorying, documenting, and 

evaluating cultural resources located within the Park boundaries and providing for their 

preservation, interpretation, and appropriate management. Cultural resource management 

activities are undertaken with the knowledge that all tangible resources such as sites, 

objects, and structures, are finite and nonrenewable. 

Park areas with the highest potential for natural starts and wildland fires include the 

higher elevation pinyon-juniper forests and sagebrush/blackbrush areas. It should be 

noted that only a small portion of the former monument land has been surveyed for 

archeological resources. A larger number of historical resources have been identified and 

documented in connection with research reports and compliance actions. The vast 

majority of new lands acquired from the Bureau of Land Management through the 

California Desert Protection Act of 1994 still require identification, documentation, and 

evaluation of resources. 

It is known, however, that those Park areas susceptible to wildland fires contain large 

numbers of cultural resources, many which are significant to the prehistory and history of 

the Park. These include mining-related structures such as cabins, ore-processing mills and 

equipment, ore bins, arrastras, and tramways; historic town site ruins; prehistoric rock 

shelters; petroglyphs and pictographs; and a number of Timbisha Shoshone pinyon 

gathering campsites and sacred, religious, and traditional use areas. The extremely dry 

climate of Death Valley National Park has promoted the preservation of many perishable 

artifacts that aren’t normally found in archaeological contexts, such as wikiups, pinyon 

hooks, and bow stave trees. Such old wooden artifacts represent very rare opportunities to 

better understand aboriginal peoples of Death Valley; however, their dry condition makes 

them extremely vulnerable to fire impacts. In addition, there are a number of cabins in 

these areas that are used by weekend visitors to the Park. 

Ethnographic resources are also important. About fifty members of the Timbisha 

Shoshone Tribe--direct descendants of the Panamint Shoshone who lived in the Death 

Valley area for hundreds of years--still live within the Park. The tribe has special 

concerns related to specific Death Valley resources that are significant as sacred or 

religious sites or traditional subsistence areas. These sites should have high priority for 

fire suppression activities. In addition, Park staff will work with tribal members to 
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coordinate the application of fire to restore or maintain traditional collecting areas and 

other resources of cultural concern.

Cultural landscapes (both ethnographic and historical) are present throughout the Park. A 

cultural landscape is a geographic area, including both natural and cultural resources, 

associated with a historic event, activity or person. The National Park Service recognizes 

four cultural landscape categories: historic designed landscapes (deliberate artistic 

creations reflecting recognized styles; i.e., Spanish style architecture at Scottys Castle); 

historic vernacular landscapes (such as mining districts, and homesteads); historic sites 

(significant for their associations with important events, activities or events); and 

ethnographic landscapes (associated with contemporary groups and typically are used or 

valued in traditional ways; i.e., the mesquite groves of Mesquite Flat). In addition, these 

categories are not mutually exclusive. That is, a site may contain significant elements 

pertaining to one or more types of cultural landscapes. Death Valley National Park 

contains examples of each of the four landscape categories. The possibility of damage to 

these landscapes from wildland fire ranges from high to low potential (see Appendix B).

Special consideration to these sensitive areas is required. Maintaining cultural landscapes 

in their present condition is important for their interpretive potential as well as their 

scientific data potential. 

Two facts are clear concerning wildland fire management. First, a fire event may 

preclude any type of survey in advance of that fire due to the speed and intensity of the 

flames. Second, most sites will be extremely difficult to access in any reasonable amount 

of time due to the steep and rugged terrain common in wilderness areas. The Park needs 

to identify potential fire hazard areas and do immediate surveys ahead of fire with funds 

allocated through the fire program or other appropriate funding sources. In addition, postfire surveys should be conducted to determine the effects of fire on various resource 

types, to search for new resources uncovered by the fire, and to assess further research 

needs related to fire management.

One of the objectives of fire management is to protect those significant cultural resources 

most susceptible to wildland fires. Appendix B contains a detailed list of areas with high 

potential for wildland fires and resources within those areas that require specific 

treatment or protection. Many of these areas will need to be assessed by a team composed 

of fire and cultural resource specialists to adequately determine potential wildfire impacts 

on cultural resources and appropriate mitigation and/or treatment measures.

Identified within Death Valley National Park are fifteen areas with sufficient fuel loads to 

sustain wildland fire. These areas include: Last Chance Range North, Last Chance Range 

South, Scottys Castle (including Lower Vine Ranch), Grapevine Mountains, Mesquite 

Flat, Furnace Creek Fan, Greenwater Valley, West Side Road, Saratoga Spring, 

Owlshead Mountains, Quail Mountains, Panamint Range (including Townes Pass and 

Nelson Range), Saline Valley, Cottonwood Mountains, and the Inyo Mountains. 

Significant cultural resources have been identified within many of these areas.

General cultural resource objectives for archeological sites include protecting important 

sources of information through proactive inventory, pre-fire treatment, and post-fire 
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stabilization. Table 19 provides management guidance and treatment options for 

generalized cultural resource categories. These are recommended actions, some of which 

can be done pro-actively before a fire occurs, or may be accomplished during a fire 

incident provided it is safe and feasible to do so. 

• Archeological Resources 

o Obtain GIS coverage for sensitive areas

o Protect sites from ground disturbing fire and fuel management activities

o Cut snags and remove downed trees (especially from features) to eliminate 

the majority of intense heat sources.

o Collect surface samples of lithic and ceramic artifacts if safe to do so prior 

to the arrival of the flames.

o Flush cut and cover stumps to guard against intense sub-surface heating.

o Design fire frequency (i.e. prescribed fires) to maintain fuel loads that will 

not create intense, artifact-affecting fires.

o Design fire frequency (i.e. prescribed fires) and intensity to maintain open 

character of site, reducing potential for subsurface feature contamination 

through root burns.

o Reduce fuels adjacent to rock art panels.

o Document extent of surface artifacts and site conditions as part of the post 

fire assessment to evaluate threat of looting an prescribe mitigation 

treatments. 

• Cultural Landscapes

o Restore fire as a cultural tool where appropriate

o Restore and maintain general and overarching landscape characteristics 

(vegetation patterning, open character, any long-range vistas and 

viewsheds).

o Reduce hazardous fuel accumulations.

o Protect contributing resources from direct impacts.

• Historic Structures

o Reduce fuels adjacent to structures.

o Assess (and upgrade where necessary) structural fire protection facilities 

and response plans at National Historic Landmarks and other National 

Register Structures.

o Restore and maintain historic landscape setting.

• Traditional Cultural Resources

o Manage utilized plants for desired characteristics through timing, intensity 

and frequency of burns; or protect plant stands from damaging fire effects.

o In consultation with the Timbisha Shoshone, maintain traditional 

(landscape) setting characteristics such as vegetation patterning, openness, 

and viewsheds at ceremonial, spiritual, and historic village locations.

o Where fire is a traditional management tool, incorporate traditional 

burning methods or use native people to conduct burns.
Table 19. Management and treatment options for cultural resources.

87

Resource 

Type

Management Objectives 

(related to fire) Values at Risk Risk Conditions Treatment Options

Lithic Scatters ♦ Maintain or extract 

information

♦ Obsidian hydration 

data

♦ Blood residue

♦ Post-fire looting

♦ Heavy surface fuels

♦ Ground disturbance through fire 

facility construction and use

♦ Site exposure post-fire

♦ Data collection through surface 

collection sampling

♦ Experimentation

♦ Protection from ground disturbance

♦ Post-fire documentation

♦ Post-fire site protection

♦ Maintain fire frequency that prevents 

heavy fuels accumulation

♦ Residue retrieval

♦ Fuel reduction and/or fire exclusion

Ceramic 

Scatters

♦ Maintain or extract 

information

♦ Protein residue

♦ Morphology

♦ Compromised thermo 

luminescence dating 

♦ Post-fire looting

♦ Heavy surface fuels

♦ Ground disturbance through fire 

facility construction and use

♦ Site exposure post-fire

♦ Data collection through surface 

collection sampling

♦ Experimentation

♦ Protection from ground disturbance

♦ Post-fire documentation

♦ Post-fire site protection

♦ Maintain fire frequency that prevents 

heavy fuels accumulation

♦ Residue retrieval

♦ Fuel reduction and/or fire exclusion

Groundstone ♦ Maintain or extract 

information

♦ Morphology

♦ Protein residue

♦ Heavy surface fuels

♦ Ground disturbance through fire 

facility construction and use

♦ Data collection through surface 

collection sampling

♦ Fuel reduction

♦ Residue retrieval

♦ Fire exclusion

Surface 

archeological 

features

♦ Maintain or extract info

♦ Document baseline info

♦ Maintain as landscape 

feature

♦ Morphology

♦ Site patterning

♦ Post-fire looting

♦ Heavy surface fuels

♦ Ground disturbance through fire 

facility construction and use

♦ Site exposure post-fire

♦ Data collection through surface 

collection sampling

♦ Fuel reduction

♦ Fire exclusion
Table 19. Management and treatment options for cultural resources.

88

Resource 

Type

Management Objectives 

(related to fire) Values at Risk Risk Conditions Treatment Options

Subsurface 

archeological 

features

♦ Maintain or extract 

information

♦ Chronology (carbon)

♦ Subsistence (floral 

and faunal)

♦ Stumps and/or snags on site

♦ Ground disturbance through fire 

facility construction and use

♦ Flush-cutting and covering stumps and 

snags

Midden soils ♦ Maintain or extract 

information

♦ Subsistence

♦ Chronology

♦ Heavy surface fuels

♦ Ground disturbance through fire 

facility construction and use

♦ Stumps and/or snags on site

♦ Removal of downed trees

♦ Flush-cutting and covering stumps and 

snags

♦ Avoiding ground disturbance

♦ Post-fire site protection

Pictographs 

and 

petroglyphs

♦ Maintain or extract 

information

♦ Maintain as landscape 

feature

♦ Artistic

♦ Morphological or 

stylistic data

♦ Traditional/spiritual

♦ Loss of dating and 

organic data 

♦ Fuel adjacent to panel

♦ Heavy fuel loads surrounding 

sites that result in flame 

impingement

♦ Smoke damage

♦ Reduce fuels adjacent to panels

♦ Manage site area to maintain nonhazardous fuel loads

♦ Documentation, including photography

♦ Post-fire assessment

Historic 

buildings

♦ Maintain or extract 

information

♦ Maintain as landscape 

feature

♦ Original historic 

fabric

♦ Historic setting

♦ Heavy fuels on or adjacent to 

building

♦ Removing hazardous fuels adjacent to 

structure

♦ LCS or HABS/HAER documentation

♦ Maintaining fire frequency or manual 

thinning that maintains historic setting

♦ External fire suppression systems for 

susceptible structures

♦ Internal fire suppression systems where 

appropriate in frontcountry areas

Historic 

fencelines

♦ Maintain or extract 

information

♦ Maintain as landscape 

feature

♦ Location information

♦ Contributing elements 

to landscape

♦ Heavy fuels adjacent to 

flammable fence components

♦ Snags adjacent to fenceline

♦ Fence cutting to allow access 

during suppression

♦ Documentation

♦ Reduce adjacent fuel loads

♦ Inform IC of alternate access points

Historic 

dumps

♦ Maintain or extract 

information

♦ Maintain as landscape 

feature

♦ Chronology

♦ Subsistence

♦ Functional data

♦ Stumps and/or snags on site

♦ Ground disturbance through fire 

facility construction and use

♦ Post-fire looting

♦ Documentation

♦ Protection from ground disturbance

♦ Post-fire site protection
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IV.B. Use of Wildland Fire

Opportunities for Use of Wildland Fire

Fire is not thought to play as significant a role historically in the Mojave Desert as it does 

in other western ecosystems, most notably the southern chaparral or Sierran mixed conifer 

zones. Within the true Mojave Desert vegetation types, infrequent, small fires characteristic 

of the historic fire regime are a function of the low fuel loads and wide spacing that 

characterizes the Mojave Desert flora. Within Death Valley National Park, however, a 

number of vegetative communities reflect a transition between Mojave and Great Basin 

Desert types and the western margin of the Park includes high elevation coniferous forest. 

These communities do support fire, and their historic fire regimes and characteristic fire 

ecology indicate that fire plays an important role in these communities. Lightning ignitions 

do occur and fires can carry through native plant communities resulting in fires that are 

natural, albeit relatively infrequent. 

The objective for use of wildland firewithin Death Valley National Park is to allow the 

natural process of fire to occur with minimal interference, thus fostering landscape and 

biotic diversity. Acceptable results include the creation of vegetative mosaics and edges, 

removal of decadent shrubs and grasses to encourage growth of new and vigorous 

individuals, promotion of nutrient cycling, and creation of improved short- and long-term 

foraging opportunities for wildlife.

Fire use will not be allowed in or near riparian woodlands due to the potential for impacts 

to least Bell’s vireo and southwestern willow flycatcher; both are federally-listed 

endangered bird species that are known to inhabit dense riparian woodlands in Death 

Valley National Park. 

Fires from natural ignitions will be allowed to burn within designated areas and under 

specific environmental conditions and where there are minimal values at risk. 

Approximately 2,473,300 acres are zoned for fire use, including portions of all Fire 

Management Units except the Devils Hole FMU. In all cases, fire use zones are coincident 

with designated wilderness. In these areas, a timely suppression response would be unlikely 

or has the potential to result in unacceptable impacts to wilderness values. Natural ignitions 

in these areas are expected to be infrequent and isolated with fire spread contained by 

natural barriers. Fire use will only be implemented where the current spot weather forecasts 

indicate no wind events that could cause spread or spotting that would pose a risk to life,

property, or sensitive resources. A number of pre-determining factors would also be 

weighed, including national preparedness levels, air quality restrictions, and appropriate 

complexity fire use manager (FUMA) availability. In all cases, use of wildland fire 

incidents will be monitored by fire personnel. The fire management strategy will transition 

from fire use to suppression when a) management considerations change, b) the fire 

threatens to exceed the maximum manageable area, c) or the fire poses a threat to other 

values.
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Fire Use Implementation

The Wildland Fire Decision Support System process will be initiated for all wildland 

fires managed for resource benefit (Redbook p. 09-6, 1st paragraph). However, only the 

most active fires being managed for resource benefits with greater potential for growth 

will require completion of all parts of a WFIP. The full WFIP consists of three distinct 

stages (Table 20). The WFIP must be completed in compliance with the guidance found 

in the Wildland Fire Use, Implementation Procedures Reference Guide , May 2005 

(March/April 2006 Revision).

It is important to note that the Long Term Fire Behavior Analyst position is a mandatory 

component of all teams preparing WFDSS decision support documentation. An LTAN 

does not have to remain continually involved with the wildland fire after completion of 

the WFDSS support documentation. The Fire Use Manager (FUMA), also a mandatory 

position for management of the WFU, will determine the necessary level of involvement 

of the LTAN during the implementation of the approved plan (see 310-1 Wildland and 

Prescribed Fire Qualification System Guide for position description and qualifications). 

Regional Fire Management Officers are responsible for appraising and surveying all use 

of wildland fire events within their region, therefore park fire staff need to notify the 

Regional FMO or appointed designee of any potential us of wildland fire projects in the 

park. Any use of wildland fire projects with a “Complex Rating” must have their 

implementation plans reviewed by regional office fire staff.

Review by the Regional FMO or Acting is mandatory for any WFIP with a projected cost 

greater then $500,000 and a National FMO or Acting, at NIFC, for any WFIPs with a 

projected cost exceeding $1,000,000.
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Initial Fire Assessment

 Fire name

 Fire number

 Jurisdiction(s)

 Administrative unit(s)

 Geographic Area(s)

 Management Code(s)

 Start date/time

 Discovery date/time

 Current size

 Location

 Cause

 Fuel model(s)/conditions

 Current weather

 Forecasted weather

 Current fire behavior

 Forecasted fire behavior

 Availability of resources

 Decision criteria checklist

 Recommended response action

Pre-planned Implementation and Initial Action Procedures

The Park’s fire management plan will be communicated annually to all 

incident commanders within the Park’s initial response area. 

Smoke management activities are coordinated with the Great Basin Unified 

Air Pollution Control District or the Mojave Desert Air Quality Management 

District. Required actions are specified in Appendix E, but generally require 

that the Fire Management Officer conduct annual planning and reporting 

while the Incident Commander is responsible for incident specific 

communication and smoke mitigation efforts.

One or more resource advisors will be ordered for each use of wildland fire 

project. 

Public Information Regarding Use of Wildland Fire 

Public information regarding use of wildland fire is necessary to address 

concerns of Park residents and neighbors as well as the visiting public. To this 

end, a press release will be prepared and distributed for each use of wildland 
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fire incident that exceeds the first operational period. In addition to the 

standard press release contacts, the press release will also be posted in Park 

visitor contact stations and in Park campgrounds. Due to the remoteness of 

Death Valley National Park and the localized nature of most fires, it is 

unlikely that a fire use event will generate significant media or political 

interest. However, should public, media, or political interest exceed the Park’s 

normal public information capabilities, a Fire Information Officer will be 

assigned from the local area or ordered through the Federal Interagency 

Communication Center. 

Use of Wildland Fire Administration 

Wildland fires are funded through normal accounting procedures using individual project 

accounts. The Fire Management Program Assistant will establish the fire account and 

advise the Regional Fire Management Program Assistant so that any resources ordered 

from outside the Park will be charged to the appropriate account. Documentation of all 

expenditures to the account will be included in the final fire package.

Each use of wildland fire project will have a permanent record developed which will be 

maintained in the permanent Fire Management files at Park headquarters. This record 

will include: 1) Wildland Fire Decision Support decision process documentation,2) 

digital fire maps with fire perimeter,3) monitoring reports and summaries of findings, 

along with a summary of all monitoring activities including a monitoring schedule as 

prescribed in the Death Valley National Park Fire Effects Monitoring and Research Plan 

(Appendix D), and4) cost accounting documents. 

IV.C. Prescribed Fire

 

Every burn will be the subject of a burn plan as described in DO/RM #18: Wildland Fire 

Management. This document will describe the primary objective for the project, how 

other values will be protected during implementation, exactly how the burn will be 

carried out, and how success of the burn will be measured against monitoring objectives

(Appendix D). A burn plan must be written by a qualified burn boss and approved by the 

Park Superintendent prior to implementation. Prior to approval of a burn plan, all 

applicable compliance actions must be completed and documented, including 

consultations with the State Historic Preservation Office, Tribes, and the U.S. Fish and 

Wildlife Service. Compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act must also be 

documented, including completion of an environmental assessment with public review if 

the project is not categorically excluded. Additionally, a burn permit must be obtained 

from the Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District or the Mojave Desert Air 

Quality Management District, depending on the location of the project.

Slash pile burns also require a burn plan, but do not have to be in the Five-Year Work 

Plan. All other prescribed fires should be identified in the Fire-Year Work Plan 

(Appendix F) and entered in the National Fire Plan Operating and Reporting System. 
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IV.D. Non-fire Fuel Treatments

The only fuel treatments proposed in Death Valley National Park are hazard fuel 

reduction immediately adjacent to Park owned structures and hazard fuel reduction in the 

campgrounds. Specific locations and projects are outlined in the Five-Year Work Plan 

(Appendix F).

Before fuel treatments are undertaken in habitat for the threatened desert tortoise, least 

bell’s vireo, or southwestern willow flycatcher, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must 

be consulted. Those areas of potential impact must be surveyed by a qualified biologist 

using a survey method prescribed by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and terms and 

conditions agreed upon by both parties must be followed. Such consultation should occur 

one year prior to planned implementation of the treatment. 

IV.E. Burned Area Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation

The Department of Interior Office of Wildland Fire Coordination has issued policy to 

authorize and provide the means for managing emergency stabilization and rehabilitation 

following wildfire on lands or threatening lands under the jurisdiction of the Department 

of the Interior, or lands adjacent thereto (620 DM 3). The three primary components of 

this policy are listed below.

Emergency Stabilization: To determine the need for and to prescribe and implement 

emergency treatments to minimize threats to life or property or to stabilize and prevent 

unacceptable degradation to natural and cultural resources resulting from the effects of a 

fire.

Rehabilitation: (1) To evaluate actual and potential long-term post-fire impacts to critical 

cultural and natural resources and identify those areas unlikely to recover naturally from 

severe wildland fire damage. (2) To develop and implement cost-effective plans to 

emulate historical or pre-fire ecosystem structure, function, diversity, and dynamics 

consistent with approved land management plans, or if that is infeasible, then to restore or 

establish a healthy, stable ecosystem in which native species are well represented. (3) To 

repair or replace minor facilities damaged by wildland fire.

Fire Suppression Activity Damage Repair: (1) To evaluate and plan fire suppression 

activity damage repair. (2) To fund and implement projects that meet specific Department 

of Interior criteria found in section 3.10 of 620 DM3 as well as agency administrator 

criteria.

National Park Service emergency rehabilitation plans are of two types:

A. Suppression Rehabilitation Plans
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Short-term rehabilitation plans are written by the Park’s Resource Advisor or the Planning 

Section on the incident, are approved by the Superintendent, and are implemented by the 

incident overhead team and the demobilization patrol and mop-up personnel. Such plans 

describe the rehabilitation efforts required to immediately stabilize a fire-impacted area as a 

prerequisite to the natural healing process or to restore the visual quality of site disturbance 

activities taken during the suppression effort. All fires that exceed initial action should be 

assessed for suppression rehabilitation. Appropriate actions may be simply inserted into 

daily shift plans for the incident. As these actions are considered part of the suppression 

effort, no separate funds are identified. 

A typical suppression effects rehabilitation plan would address the following concerns:

• Hand lines will be rehabilitated by re-contouring of any berms or cuts, relocation of 

rocks (if removal in any area has been significant), scuffing of surface debris over 

the fireline to reduce erosion and stimulate re-vegetation, and construction of 

waterbars as needed. Survey lines for cultural resources before rehab treatment.

• All trash and debris will be policed from camps, bases, staging areas, firelines, 

helispots and heliports.

• Re-vegetation of constructed fire lines may be necessary to mitigate impacts of 

suppression activities. If re-vegetation is required, native plants will be used 

following the recommendations of Park resource management personnel.

• All helispots and heliports will be rehabilitated by scattering natural debris over the 

bare area.

B. Long-Term Emergency Stabilization and/or Rehabilitation Plans

Long-term emergency stabilization and/or rehabilitation plans are usually prepared by a 

team of interdisciplinary rehabilitation specialists, are recommended by the Park

Superintendent and approved or recommended (depending on dollar amount) by the Pacific 

West Regional Director or the NPS Fire Director. These plans are implemented by the Park

over a period of one year for emergency stabilization treatments and three years for 

rehabilitation treatments. Such plans generally involve major expenditures of funds and are 

implemented to stabilize and rehabilitate large fires that have impacted the natural 

environment in a manner that jeopardizes the future integrity of this environment and/or 

poses specific threats to human life and property. Federal fire funds are made available 

through established channels for assessment and implementation of approved actions. 

Allowable actions as well as planning and implementation procedures for post-fire 

treatments are found in the Departmental Manual on Wildland Fire Management Burned 

Area Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation (620 DM 3, current policy was released 

May 20, 2004). Further guidance is found in the NPS Burned Area Emergency Response 

Guidebook and Burned Area Rehabilitation Guidebook. 

While it is not possible to forecast future fire locations, below are some values at risk from 

fire and potential watershed response to fire at Death Valley National Park that should be 

considered during emergency stabilization and rehabilitation assessments.
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• Areas occupied by listed threatened or endangered species, including aquatic 

habitats that could be affected by ash and sediment movement from burned 

areas upslope. 

• Park infrastructure and private properties that are located on or adjacent to steep 

slopes where large areas upslope have burned.

• Abandoned industrial mining sites - of particular concern are those that include 

leach piles that may become destabilized and move downslope and those that 

include open shafts or adits that might have been compromised by the fire

• Numerous cultural resources, including both historic and prehistoric sites. Of 

particular concern are those sites that are exposed by the fire and are vulnerable 

to looting, such as lithics, ceramics, and habitation sites.

• Numerous rare plant species and communities, particularly those concentrations 

of rare species found in the Grapevine and Panamint Mountains. 

Other issues of concern include the potential for spread of non-native plants, primarily red 

brome (Bromus madritensis ssp. rubens), cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum), Mediterranean 

grass (Schismus arabicus), and non-native mustards (Brassica spp. and Sisymbrium spp.). 

These invasive plants occupy the spaces between desert shrubs, including areas that are not 

naturally vegetated, thus creating a continuous fuel load and changing the fire frequency of 

the environment. Related to this concern, is the common use of grass seeding post-fire to 

protect watersheds from soil erosion and to provide competition with the invasive grass 

species. When writing post-fire seeding treatments, special attention should be given to the 

flammability and competitiveness of the seeded species. There is some indication that the 

seeding of native grass species may be less effective than seeding of non-native perennial 

grass species in suppressing the growth of invasive grasses (Brooks and Minnich 2006). 
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Resource Advisor/Environmental Specialist

Chief of Natural & Cultural Resources

Death Valley NP

Chief Ranger

Death Valley NP

Superintendent

Death Valley NP

Zone Fire Management Officer

Ridgecrest Field Office / Death Valley NP

Field Office Manager

Ridgecrest Field Office

Fire Management Officer

California Desert District

District Manager

BLM - California Desert District

V. ORGANIZATION AND BUDGET

V.A. Organization

Fire management at Death Valley National Park is supported by an interagency 

framework. An USDI California Desert District Operations Plan defines this organization 

and responsibilities. In general terms: 

“The BLM District Manager and NPS Park Superintendent are responsible for 

their respective fire management programs. BLM Field Office Manager and NPS 

Chief Rangers manage the day to day fire programs in their respective zones as 

delineated in the management duty matrix (refer to CDD-Operations Plan). Zone 

Fire Management Officers work directly for the BLM Field Office Manager and 

NPS Chief Ranger and will be assigned to all zones.” 

Program guidance will be provided to the Zone Fire Management Officer by the both the 

California Desert FMO and/or the NPS Regional FMO. Division chiefs at Death Valley 

all have a responsibility to support the fire management program and incident 

management occurring within the Park. Coordination between division personnel, key 

staff and interagency cooperators is critical to the implementation and continued success 

of this plan. An organizational chart for fire management at Death Valley National Park 

is shown as Figure 13.

Figure 13. Fire organizational chart at Death Valley National Park.
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The following positions have direct responsibility for the implementation of the Death 

Valley National Park fire management program.

Regional Director, Pacific West Region

Authority for the approval of this plan rests with the Regional Director of the Western 

Region, National Park Service.

Superintendent

The Superintendent of Death Valley National Park is responsible for implementation of 

this plan. Under normal conditions, implementation authority and responsibility is 

delegated to the Chief Ranger for fires within the administrative boundary of the Park. 

The Superintendent is responsible for periodic assessment signature to certify that 

continued management of use of wildland fire actions is acceptable. Under certain 

conditions, the Superintendent may delegate this responsibility to another organizational 

level.

Visitor and Resource Protection

Visitor and Resource Protection management includes the Chief Ranger and District 

Rangers. The Chief Ranger, with the assistance of the Fire Management Officer (FMO) is 

responsible for assuring that qualified personnel manage each fire. All personnel assigned 

will meet the NPS qualifications as outlined in Interagency Incident Management 

Qualifications System, and the National Park Service Wildland Qualification System.

The Chief Ranger also helps (with the Chief of Resource Management) define treatment 

objectives. The Chief Ranger is responsible for assigning an Incident Commander (IC) 

during the 1st burn period. Public and employee safety objectives are the responsibility of 

Resource Protection and Public Use Management.

Fire Management Officer (BLM position)

The Zone Fire Management Officer (FMO), duty stationed at the Bureau of Land 

Management Ridgecrest Field Office, serves as the Park’s FMO. The FMO makes all 

operational decisions in a manner that demonstrates sensitivity to the NPS mission as 

well as an understanding of agency policies and guidelines. To further this ends, the FMO 

attends NPS conferences and trainings, representing the Park at the annual NPS FMO 

conference. The FMO is responsible for direct coordination and management of all 

wildland fire activities within the administrative boundary of the Park. The FMO reports 

directly to the Chief Ranger and serves as liaison with the Bureau of Land Management 

and the Forest Service. Management activities will include training, maintenance of 

equipment (RAWS), wilderness exceptions, funding requests, and documentation and 

record keeping (1202 process, fire reports/supplemental, oversight of RAWS data). 

Project definitions and the assignment of incident personnel is also the responsibility of 

the FMO. In addition, the FMO is responsible for the assignment of the duty officer and 

decides on a case-by-case basis, whether a fire monitor will be required. 
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Resource Management

The Chief of Resource Management is responsible for assigning the Resource Advisor 

and delineates resource objectives for fire management. The Chief of Resource 

Management also takes the lead in evaluating fire effects and helps (with the Chief 

Ranger) define treatment objectives. The Chief will also propose and secure funding for 

fire ecology research projects in support of subsequent plan revision. During incidents, 

the Chief will coordinate resource advisor participation, and will serve as backup advisor 

to the Incident Commander. The Chief is responsible for initiating burned area 

emergency stabilization and rehabilitation treatments as needed to secure the long-term 

ecological health and productivity of burned lands.

Cultural Resources Specialist

The Cultural Resource Specialist will serve as a Resource Advisor to the Fire 

Management Officer or an Incident Commander regarding cultural resource matters.

V.B. Funding

Death Valley National Park does not currently receive any annual funding from the NPS 

Fire Program. The Park’s fire program is primarily supported by a few thousand dollars 

set aside each year from the Park’s operating budget. These dollars are sometimes 

augmented with need-specific funds (i.e. fire cache supplies, engine maintenance) made 

available from the Pacific West Region’s Fire Program. 

V.C. Interagency Coordination for FMP Implementation

For Wildland Fire Management, Death Valley National Park falls within the operational 

coordination area of the Federal Interagency Coordination Center (FICC) at San 

Bernardino, California. All interagency dispatching and requesting of resources will be 

completed through FICC. The Zone Fire Management Officer for Death Valley National 

Park is the primary contact between the Park and FICC. FICC provides services on 

indices, fire weather, cache support, resource coordination and mobilization as well as 

flight following and incident aviation support. 

The Zone Fire Management Officer works with key Park staff in the annual review of 

documents, plans and agreements that may need revision. Some of these plans and 

documents include; dispatch plans, incident qualifications, and run cards.

The Zone Fire Management Officer with key Park staff, works with, coordinates and 

maintains contacts with Park neighbors that include:

• BLM California - Ridgecrest Field Office, Barstow Field Office, Bishop Field Office

• BLM Nevada – Tonopah Field Office, Las Vegas Field Office

• Forest Service – Inyo National Forest
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• California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection – Owens Lake Unit

• County Entities within Nevada that include;

• Nye County

• Esmeralda County

• County Entities within California that include;

• Inyo County

• San Bernardino County

V. D. Fire Related Agreements and Contracts

The Zone Fire Management Officer maintains a current copy of all wildland fire 

agreements, which are available at the Ridgecrest Field Office. Annual updates to 

national agreements can be found and referenced in the National Mobilization Guide.

The most current fire-related agreements are the charters for the California Desert 

Fire Planning Unit and the Southern Nevada Fire Planning Unit for the Fire 

Program Analysis. Other interagency and mutual aid agreements pre-date the 

establishment of the Fire Planning Units. These agreements are revised annually 

or at other self-defined intervals.

There is a four-party cooperative fire protection agreement between the 1) Bureau of 

Land Management, California and Nevada; 2) National Park Service, Pacific West 

Region, 3) Forest Service, Regions 4, 5, and 6; and 4) State of California Department of 

Forestry and Fire Protection. 

Death Valley National Park works within the California Desert Interagency Fire 

Operations Plan and has access to a variety of fire management resources including the 

Federal Interagency Communication Center, water tenders, helicopters, and additional 

engines.

Additional resources may be secured via contract sources. Emergency Equipment Rental 

Agreements are honored on an interagency basis with the BLM, NPS, USFS, and CDF in 

California. Master lists of these resources are kept at the Federal Interagency 

Communication Center.

Additional details regarding existing agreements can be found in Appendix G: 

Operational Considerations.
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VI. MONITORING AND EVALUATION

VI.A. Operational Reviews 

Annual readiness reviews of the Death Valley wildland fire engine are conducted in the 

spring by the Zone Fire Management Officer. The purpose of these annual readiness 

reviews is to assess preparedness of personnel, facilities, documentation, and equipment 

to assure that the field operation is in compliance with standards established by the 

National Wildfire Coordinating Group. 

After action reviews are conducted after every fire incident following the standards found 

in the Incident Response Pocket Guide.

VI.B. Fire Effects Monitoring Program

National Park Service Wildland Fire Management policy (NPS 1998) directs managers to 

monitor all prescribed and wildland fires. Fire effects monitoring must be done to 

evaluate the degree to which objectives are accomplished. Long-term monitoring is 

required to document that overall programmatic objectives are being met and undesired 

effects are not occurring. Evaluation of fire effects data are the joint responsibility of fire 

management and natural resource management personnel.

Fire monitoring within Death Valley National Park follows the recommended standards 

described in the Fire Monitoring Handbook (NPS 2003). These standards are based on 

four levels of monitoring:

• Level 1: Environmental This level provides a basic overview of the baseline data 

that can be collected prior to a burn event. Information at this level includes 

historical data such as weather, socio-political factors, terrain, and other factors 

useful in a fire management program. Some of these data are collected 

infrequently (e.g., terrain); other data (e.g., weather) are collected regularly.

• Level 2: Fire Observation Document fire observations during all fires. 

Monitoring fire conditions calls for data to be collected on ambient conditions as 

well as on fire and smoke characteristics. These data are coupled with information 

gathered during environmental monitoring to predict fire behavior and identify 

potential problems.

• Level 3: Short-term Change Monitoring short-term change (level 3) is required 

for all prescribed fires. Monitoring at this level provides information on fuel 

reduction and vegetative change within a specific vegetation and fuel complex 

(monitoring type), as well as on other variables, according to your management 

objectives. These data allow you to make a quantitative evaluation of whether a 

stated management objective was met. Vegetation and fuels monitoring data are 

collected primarily through sampling of permanent monitoring plots. Monitoring 

is carried out at varying frequencies— pre-burn, during the burn, and immediately 

post-burn; this continues for up to two years post-burn.
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• Level 4: Long-term Change Long-term change (level 4) monitoring is also 

required for prescribed fires, and often includes monitoring of short-term change 

(level 3) variables sampled at the same permanent monitoring plots over a longer 

period. This level of monitoring is also concerned with identification of 

significant trends that can guide management decisions. Some trends may be 

useful even if they do not have a high level of certainty. Monitoring frequency is 

based on a sequence of sampling at some defined interval (often after five, then 

ten years, then every ten years) past the year-two post-burn monitoring. This longterm change monitoring continues until the area is again treated with fire. 

At Death Valley National Park, environmental monitoring (level 1) is required for all fire 

management activities and most of this monitoring is on-going and not tied to a specific 

fire incident. Environmental monitoring provides the basic background information 

needed for decision-making. The following types of environmental data are collected: 

weather, fire danger rating, fuel conditions, and values to be protected. Data collection 

related to weather, fire danger rating, and fuel conditions has already been described in 

this document. Data specific to values to be protected is collected opportunistically. As 

cultural resources, rare or endangered species, or research plots are located, that 

information is shared with the Zone Fire Management Officer. If fire or fire suppression 

poses a risk, strategies are developed to mitigate that risk.

At Death Valley National Park, fire observation monitoring (level 2) is required for both 

fire suppression actions and use of wildland fire. Fire suppression requires only 

reconnaissance monitoring while use of wildland fire requires both reconnaissance and 

fire condition monitoring. Reconnaissance monitoring includes the following variables: 

fire cause (origin) and ignition point, fire location and size, logistical information, fuels 

and vegetation description, current and predicted fire behavior, potential for further 

spread, current and forecasted weather, resource or safety threats and constraints, smoke 

volume and movement. Fire condition monitoring includes the following variables: 

topography, ambient conditions, fuel model, fire characteristics, smoke characteristics, 

holding options, and resource advisor concerns. Post-fire reports will be prepared by the 

resource advisor where assigned. Details for collecting and recording this data are 

described in the Fire Effects Monitoring and Research Plan (Appendix D)

As burn plans are developed for specific prescribed fire projects outlined under this Fire 

Management Plan, implementation of level 3 or level 4 monitoring will be determined. In 

general, burns undertaken for slash pile removal or for traditional cultural practices will 

not require vegetation monitoring. Additional details of fire effects monitoring is 

discussed in the Death Valley National Park Fire Effects Monitoring and Research Plan 

(Appendix D). 

VI.C. Annual Update of Fire Management Plan

This Fire Management Plan and its appendices will be reviewed annually by the Fire 

Management Officer and other Park or fire personnel as requested by the Fire 
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Management Officer. The review will take place after the current fire season and before 

the next fire season, generally in January or February. The purpose of this review is to 

assure that fire management planning documents are pertinent and up-to-date with 

current resource information, new policies, and improved operational procedures. 

Revisions will be undertaken as necessary to assure this purpose is met. Environmental 

documents will be revised or new documents will be prepared when plan revisions result 

in anticipated changes in the intensity or frequency of environmental impacts than 

discussed in the 2007 documents.
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VII. CONSULTATION AND COORDINATION

This Fire Management Plan has been under development for several years, with changes 

in personnel and fire management policies. It was developed by Death Valley National 

Park staff, staff from other parks, and the Ridgecrest Bureau of Land Management staff. 

Early drafts were shared with the Timbisha Shoshone Tribal Council and revisions were 

made based on their suggestions. Additionally, an early draft was given to members of 

the Death Valley National Park Advisory Commission on October 28, 1999.

Because implementation of this fire management plan has the potential to affect the 

federally threatened desert tortoise, endangered least Bell’s vireo and southwestern 

willow flycatcher, an Endangered Species Act Section 7 consultation with the U.S. Fish 

and Wildlife Service will be necessary. All Federal agencies that are engaged in 

management activities that affect listed species are required to consult with the Service in 

order to determine the magnitude of potential impacts from different management 

actions, and devise actions that will eliminate or mitigate impacts to threatened or 

endangered species. Potential impacts of the proposed fire management actions were 

analyzed in a biological assessment prepared for the Park’s General Management Plan. A 

biological opinion was issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (2001) that identified 

non-discretionary terms and conditions that have been incorporated throughout this Fire 

Management Plan and its appendices. Project specific consultation will be initiated as 

needed for fuel treatments and prescribed fires that have the potential to impact 

endangered species. 

The Smoke Management document (Appendix E) will be prepared in consultation with 

the Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District and the Mojave Desert Air Quality 

Management District.

The Fire Management Plan and its appendices will be submitted to the State Historic 

Preservation Offices of California and Nevada as well as to the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe 

for review and consultation. 

A separate environmental assessment for this Fire Management Plan will be prepared in 

compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act and made available with the Fire 

Management Plan and its appendices for a 30 day public review period. Following the 

close of the public review period, the comments received will be analyzed, along with 

any other new information, and a management decision will be made and announced.
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VIII. PREPARERS

This document was several years in development. It was first drafted by Dana York, 

former botanist at Death Valley National Park, and later revised by Sandee Dingman, 

biologist at Lake Mead N.R.A., under the direction of Chief Ranger Nancy Wizner. The 

following people were involved in the development of this Fire Management Plan. They 

provided assistance in identifying issues, developing alternatives or analyzing impacts. 

They did not necessarily review the entire or the final Fire Management Plan, nor do they 

necessarily recommend the proposed action or agree with all of the material presented.

Richard Anderson Former Environmental Specialist, Death Valley N.P.

Terry Baldino Chief of Interpretation, Death Valley N.P.

Bill Blake Former Chief Ranger, Death Valley N.P.

Charlie Callagan Park Ranger (Interpretation), Death Valley N.P.

Ken Castro Former Fire Management Officer, Lassen Volcanic N.P.

Tim Canaday, Ph.D. Former Archeologist, Death Valley N.P.

Kevin Chambers Former Zone Fire Management Officer, Ridgecrest BLM

Tim Croissant Former Biological Science Technician (Plants), Death 

Valley N.P.

Ed DeRobertis Assistant Chief Ranger, Death Valley N.P.

David Ek Asst. Chief of Resources Management, Death Valley N.P.

Linda Greene Chief of Resources Management, Death Valley N.P.

Chuck Heard Fire Management Officer, Mojave National Preserve

Linda Kerr Former Prescribed Fire Specialist, Grand Canyon N.P.

Brian Knaus Former Biological Sciences Technician (Plants), Death 

Valley N.P.

Sara Koenig Former Biological Sciences Technician (Wildlife), Death 

Valley N.P.

Linda Manning Biological Science Technician (Wildlife), Death Valley 

N.P.

Scot McElveen Former Assistant Chief Ranger, Death Valley N.P.

Arnie Peterson, Ph.D. Former Biological Sciences Technician (plants), Death 

Valley N.P.

Jim Roche Former Physical Sciences Technician, Death Valley N.P.

Doug Threloff Former Natural Resources Specialist, Death Valley N.P.

Don Washington Zone Fire Management Officer, Ridgecrest BLM

Vicki Wolfe Park Ranger (Interpretation), Death Valley N.P.

Reviewed by

MaryBeth Keifer Fire Ecologist, NPS Pacific West Region

Nelson Siefkin Fire Archaeologist, NPS Pacific West Region

Rick Smedley Fire Planner, NPS Pacific West Region
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IX. REFERENCES

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system, version2.0: User’s Guide. Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-106WWW. Ogden, UT: 

Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 132p.

BalanceTech. 2003. WFSA Plus 4.4: Wildland Fire Implementation and Wildland Fire 

Situation Analysis. Software and Users Guide. 

Brooks, M.L. and R. Minnich. 2006. Fire Ecology of the Desert Bioregion. In Fire 

Ecology of California. University of California Press. 

Bureau of Land Management. 2006a. California Desert Interagency Fire Operations 

Plan. 

Bureau of Land Management. 2006b. California Fire Weather Annual Operating Plan. 

56 pp.

Duck, T.A., T.C. Esque, and T.J. Hughes. 1997. Fighting wildfires in desert tortoise 

habitat, considerations fro land managers. In Proceedings: Fire effects on rare and 

endangered species habitats conference. November 13-16, 1995. Coeur D’Alene, ID. 

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Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC). 1997. Vegetation classification standard. 

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http://www.nbs.gov/fgdc.veg/standards/vegstd.htm. 

Fowler, C.S., M. Dufort, M. Rusco, P. Esteves, G. Goad, E. Esteves, and K. Waterson. 

1995. Residence Without Reservation: Ethnographic Overview and Traditional Land 

Use Study, Timbisha Shoshone, Death Valley National Park, California, Phase I. 

Manuscript on file, Death Valley National Park.

National Park Service. 1990. Fire Management Plan for Death Valley National Park. 

U.S. Department of the Interior.

National Park Service. 1994. Resource Management Plan for Death Valley National 

Park. U.S. Department of the Interior.

National Park Service. 2008. Directors Order #18/ Reference Manual #18: Wildland 

Fire Management. U.S. Department of the Interior.

National Park Service. 1999. Directors Order #41/ Reference Manual #41: Wilderness 

Management. U.S. Department of the Interior.

National Park Service. 2001. Death Valley National Park General Management Plan. 

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National Park Service. 2003. Fire Monitoring Handbook. Boise (ID): Fire Management 

Program Center, National Interagency Fire Center. 274 pp.

National Park Service. 2006. Management Policies. U.S. Department of the Interior.

National Wildfire Coordinating Group. 2006. Glossary of Wildland Fire Terminology. 

Sponsored by the Incident Operations Standards Working Team. Available electronically 

at http://www.nwcg.gov.

Rowlands, P.G. 1988. Physical Features, Climate and Vegetation of the Northern 

Mojave and Southwestern Great Basin Deserts Between Bishop, California and Las 

Vegas, Nevada. USDI, National Park Service Report, Death Valley NP, Death Valley, 

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Thomas, K. T. Keeler-Wolf, J. Franklin, and P. Stine. 2004. Mojave Desert Ecosystem 

Program: Central Mojave Vegetation Database. U.S. Geological Survey. 251 pp.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 2004. Fire Management Plan for Ash Meadows National 

Wildlife Refuge. Las Vegas, Nevada. 

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 2002. Final Recovery Plan for Southwestern Willow 

Flycatcher. Albuquerque, New Mexico. i-ix + 210 pp., Appendices A-0.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 2001. Biological Opinion for the General Management 

Plan for Death Valley National Park (1-8-00-F-32). Issued July 24, 2001. Ventura, 

California. 61 pp.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 1998. Draft recovery plan for the least Bell’s vireo. 

Portland, Oregon. 139 pp. 

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 1994. Desert Tortoise (Mojave Population) Recovery 

Plan. Portland, Oregon. 73 pp plus appendices.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 1990. Recovery Plan for the Endangered and Threatened 

Species of Ash Meadows, Nevada. Portland, Oregon. 123 pp.

Wildland Fire Leadership Council. 2002. A Collaborative Approach for Reducing 

Wildland Fire Risks to Communities and the Environment: 10-year Comprehensive 

Strategy Implementation Plan. 26 pp. http://www.fireplan.gov/reports/11-23-en.pdf