Record of Decision Signed for Final Yosemite Fire Management Plan

Yosemite National Park Superintendent Michael J. Tollefson announced today that National Park Service Pacific West Regional Director Jon Jarvis signed the Record of Decision for the Final Yosemite Fire Management Plan Environmental Impact Statement (Final FMP).

This signing records the decision of the National Park Service to adopt the Final FMP for implementation as described in the preferred alternative. The preferred alternative of the Final FMP proposes to reduce risk to park wildland urban interface communities within six to eight years, and to restore park ecosystems within 15 to 20 years.

The Final FMP guides the implementation of a complex fire management program. The program includes wildland fire suppression, wildland fire used to achieve natural and cultural resource benefits, fire prevention, prescribed fire, fire ecology research, and the use of mechanical methods to reduce and thin vegetation in and around communities.

One goal of the program is to reduce the threat of wildland fire to public safety and to the park´s wildland urban interface communities as well as to its natural and cultural resources. Another goal is to return the influence of natural fire to park ecosystems so that they are restored to, and maintained in, as natural condition as possible.

Copies of the Final FMP are available by written request: Superintendent, P.O. Box 577, Yosemite, CA, 95389, email request: yose_planning@nps.gov, or call (209)379-1365. The Final FMP is also available at http://www.nps.gov/yose/planning/fire.