SEQUOIA-KINGS CANYON NATIONAL PARK

Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks are located on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada in central California. Combined acreage for these two parks is 349,500 ha (863,300 acres). Elevations range from 420 to 4410 m (1380 to 14,470 feet). Vegetation ranges from foothill grassland and chaparral, through ponderosa pine, to the mixed conifer zone, to red fir and lodgepole pine and finally to high elevation pine near treeline. Generally, fire frequency increases toward drier environmental positions, and as fire frequency increases, fire severity tends to decrease (Caprio and Swetnam 1995). Lightning is most common on higher elevations, but can still be significant at lower elevations. In the past, lightning ignitions may have been supplemented by burning by Native Americans and by sheepherders during the late 1800s. Fire suppression since the early 1900s has disrupted the fire regime allowing dead fuel to accumulate and understory tree density to increase. Today, Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks employ Wildland Fire Use (WFU), in which naturally ignited wildfires are allowed to burn in designated areas under prescribed conditions.

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks were selected for this study based on the availability of data, the existence of a fire management plan that includes WFU as an option and size and remoteness of the wilderness area, characteristics which are conducive to the implementation of WFU. Because Sequoia-Kings Canyon has been actively involved with interagency fire management planning (Southern Sierra Geographic Information Cooperative), we extended our analysis beyond Park boundaries and used the watershed boundaries that this planning effort has adopted. Our study area is the Kings and Kaweah watersheds, a very large landscape (782,700 ha; 1,932,600 acres) managed by multiple agencies including the US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and state and local governments.

Caprio, A., and T.W. Swetnam. 1995. Historic fire regimes along an elevational gradient on the west slope of the Sierra Nevada, California. Pages 173-179 in J.K. Brown, R.W. Mutch, C.W. Spoon, and R.W. Wakimoto, tech. cords. Proceedings: Symposium on fire in wilderness and park management, Missoula, MT, March 30-April 1, 1993.