Park to update fire management plan, improve radio communication
in important parts of the Monument
Pinnacles National Monument is seeking public comment on a
habitat restoration and fire management plan as well as a radio
coverage improvement project during a 30-day period that ends March
5.
Park to update fire management plan, improve radio communication in important parts of the Monument
Pinnacles National Monument is seeking public comment on a habitat restoration and fire management plan as well as a radio coverage improvement project during a 30-day period that ends March 5.
The monument’s fire management plan, which was completed in 2006, does not include the nearly 2,000 acres the monument acquired on its eastern side. Therefore, an update to the plan is necessary.
An environmental assessment will update the plan to include the new lands and will allow for a park-wide invasive plant control and re-vegetation program. The plan calls for prescribed burning and other means to suppress targeted invasive plant and promote the reestablishment of native plants.
The controlled burns, according to a report by park officials, “would mimic the role of wildfire as an essential ecological process to restore and revitalize native vegetation, including plants that are valuable ethnographic resources for California Indian peoples.”
Pinnacles also proposed to install a new radio repeater to improve radio reception in for National Park Service employees in high priority areas of the monument. The repeater would be located in the northeast backcountry wilderness overlooking the canyons and trails that are most in need of coverage, according to a park report.
The additional radio communication capabilities, officials say, would “alleviate a potentially dangerous situation which without radio communication would be a serious and potentially life-threatening officer safety, visitor and staff concern for the park.”
The environmental assessments for both projects are available at the park’s Web page at: www.nps.gov/pinn/parkmgmt/planning.htm. Comments may be sent by e-mail or postmarked by March 5 and sent to Pinnacles National Monument, 5000 Highway 146, Paicines, CA, 95043, Attn: (Habitat Restoration or Radio Repeater).
