Environmental Impact Statement/Fire Management Plan for Grand Canyon National Park
Grand Canyon, Arizona
Overview:
The National Park Service selected SWCA to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in support of a revised Fire Management Plan for Grand Canyon National Park (GRCA).
Services Provided:
- Developed alternatives that represented a full range of fire management strategies, including suppression, wildland fire use (managing naturally ignited fire to meet specific resource objectives), prescribed fire, manual fuels management and mechanical fuels management using heavy equipment.
Results:
As a third party consultant, SWCA had to thread a path between concerns over archaeological, historical, scenic and biological resources vulnerable to fire damage and the need to reduce excessive fuel loads using relatively intense fire. Through this EIS process, the National Park Service at GRCA learned that conflicting resource objectives must be resolved and fundamental policy decisions must be made and clearly articulated before NEPA planning can go forward.
©2010, SWCA Environmental Consultants
