Shoshone Prescribed Fire Treatment Postponed on South Rim of Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon, Ariz. – National Park Service (NPS) fire managers have postponed ignition of the Shoshone Prescribed Fire Unit due to precipitation over the project area.

Plans for each burn unit contain a set of parameters which define the desired weather and fuel conditions under which a prescribed fire can be initiated. As the recent rainfall has moved the unit out of prescription for implementation, the project has been postponed until it is back in prescription.

The Shoshone Rx is within the developed area on the South Rim, is 1,035 acres in size and comprised primarily of pinon juniper and ponderosa pine. Objectives specific to the Shoshone Rx include improving the defensible space in the Wildland/Urban Interface (WUI) within the South Rim developed area.

Prescribed fires play an important role in decreasing risks to life, resources, and property. Fire managers carefully plan prescribed fires, initiating them only under environmental conditions that are favorable to assuring firefighter and visitor safety and to achieving the desired objectives. Prescribed fire objectives include reducing accumulations of hazard fuels, maintaining the natural role of fire in a fire-adapted ecosystem, and protection of sensitive cultural and natural resources.