Acadia National Park - Fire Management

Fire Management In Acadia National Park

The program also conducts wild land fire prevention operations and provides fire management assistance to nine other National Park Service units in New England and New York State. Some of the activities carried out by the fire management program include: wild land urban interface education and outreach operation of four wild land fire suppression engines and one water tender maintenance of a hundred person fire cache and a twenty person fire cache maintenance of a trained cadre of primary and incidental wild land firefighters use of prescribed fire for management of park vistas mechanical removal of hazard fuels in high use areas creation and maintenance of boundary fuel breaks along park boundaries monitoring of prescribed fires and long-term forest conditions research into fire effects and the long-term history of wild land fire in the park.

The fire management staff also administers the Rural Fire Assistance Program which provides federal financial assistance to rural fire departments. Mobilization of park and other North Country Area firefighters to out-of-state fires is coordinated and directed by the fire management staff. This mobilization service is also provided to wild land firefighters from other federal agencies in the area, including the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and to local Indian tribes. Structural fire prevention operations include the inspection and maintenance of fire extinguishers, acquisition and maintenance of fire detection and fire suppression systems in park buildings, and coordination with local fire departments that provide structural fire suppression services for park buildings.

The fire management staff also provides professional, technical, administrative and logistical support to the fire management programs of the eleven other NPS units in North Country Area parks. These programs protect the lives of park staff, visitors and neighbors, provide wild land and structural fire protection to the 38,000+ acres of land and 150+ buildings that make up Acadia National Park, and assist nine other National Park Service units in the protection of their people and resources from fire.