Dear Reader,
Martian skies, a deathly silence, and soot everywhere are what your narrator lived through during the California wildfires of 2020. Despite the ferocity of these fires, the flames eventually subsided thanks to the efforts of wildland firefighters, forest stewards who play an important role for the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture (e.g., the National Park Service and US Forest Service, respectively). To highlight their importance, the week began with guest speakers from Yellowstone's own Wildland Fire Program who discussed their responsibilities and techniques with the students.
An aside for a more nuanced look into fire: although wildfires have wrought both a human and economic toll, recent scholarship has revealed the crucial role it plays in ecosystem health. For example, the lodgepole pine, whose forests cover 80% of Yellowstone, have closed cones that require exposure to fire in order to open and release their seeds. As such, in 1972, the park shifted course from a zero-fire policy to today's natural fire program. The park, however, must protect human life from fire as well as the 2% of developed areas; wildland firefighters help keep fires under control while they aid park visitors.
(See the following links for further reading: Fire - Yellowstone National Park (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov), Forest Fires in Yellowstone: the Science of Burning and Regrowth (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov), and Wildland Fire Program - Yellowstone National Park (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov))
After they learned the responsibilities and requirements for wildland firefighters, the students got a chance to try out some pyrotechnic gadgets: a driptorch and a fusee. Your narrator will describe the former as a watering can that drips fire and the latter as a flaming piece of chalk (much longer though); a more technical explanation is omitted as a Googling exercise for the reader (feel free to drop your analogies as a comment below!). Both allow for more controlled burns that reduce the available fuel for the fire to control. See the students handle a fusee below:
And a drip torch:
A reminder to our readers, however, don't play with fire!
After this presentation, Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie crews departed on spike. Find their project highlights below:
Visitor Use Management at the brink of the Upper Falls of the Grand Canyon
As the previous post laid out, visitor use management researches current usages of park resources to determine future park policies. Useful data include: the number of vehicles in a parking lot, the popular sections of a trail, and the number of people who use it. To acquire such data, students handled sophisticated equipment from GPS and trail counters to tally markers for enumeration. See alpha crew in action below:
Bear Boxes and Signs
Your narrator took a new bear photo:
Hence, cue the bear boxes: (clockwise, from top left: cutting the sonotubes that serve as a mold for concrete columns, mixing concrete, putting cones over the concrete as a warning for passersby, and moving the stencil for more holes)
Concrete foundations also keep trail signs in place:
Check Dams and Trailhead Signs near Mt. Washburn
Check dams serve as erosion control on dirt trails. Watch Charlie crew pick away dirt to install them:
And watch them dig holes for trail signs:
At YCC, we do a lot of work. But so do we have fun. See for yourself:
Thanks for the awesome week, everyone! Up next, a weekend backpacking trip!
Regards,
Your Narrator
P.S. Leave a comment below for the following question: what would you name these two bear cubs?
