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National Fire Plan Success Story

Fire is a Management Tool
Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky
National Fire Plan - Fuels Reduction

Picture of smoke from the Big Woods prescribed fire.Smoke from the Big Woods prescribed fire, as seen from a farm adjacent to Mammoth Cave National Park. NPS photo by Vickie Carson.

In 2007, Mammoth Cave National Park planned for and accomplished three prescribed fires.

The 86-acre Chaumont area is a karst valley that holds remnants of native prairie. Prescribed fire reduced nonnative clovers, grasses, vines, and other woody plants, freeing the native species from competition. In cooperation with adjoining landowners and the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the burn area included 11 acres of private property in order to avoid construction of mid-slope fire control lines.

The 1540-acre Big Woods unit harbors several distinct vegetation communities: uplands, ravine, river slope, and riparian, each requiring a specific fire prescription. With 300 acres of white oaks and southern red oaks >3' diameter at breast height (DBH), and some tulip poplar
>4' DBH, Big Woods is one of the larger tracts of old growth forest in Kentucky. Wilson Cave, home to the endangered Indiana Bat, required that the outside air temperature be above 54 degrees so the cave would "breathe out" at the time of the fire and not cause smoke to enter the cave.

The 790-acre Dennison Ferry area is an oak-hickory forest with dense thickets of mature eastern red cedar. Along the eastern boundary of the burn unit, which is also the park boundary, prescribed fire reduced hazardous fuels in the wildland-urban interface/public-private lands interface.

"Fire has been very effective in reducing hazardous fuels and improving habitat," said Superintendent Patrick Reed.

Personnel on the Mammoth Cave NP prescribed fires included:

  • Cumberland Gap Fire Use Module
  • Firefighters: Great Smoky Mountains NP, Kings Mountain NMP, Cumberland Gap NHP, Big South Fork NRA, Natchez Trace Pkwy, Mammoth Cave NP
  • Great Onyx Job Corps Fire Crew
  • Engines: Cumberland Gap NHP, Big South Fork NRA, Natchez Trace Pkwy, SER Fire Use Engine
  • SER Fuels Helicopter
  • VFDs: Park City VFD, Cub Run VFD, Lincoln VFD
  • Edmonson County Dispatch

Contact: Rich Caldwell, FMO, Mammoth Cave National Park
Phone: (270) 758-2119