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By Jeanne Spath
Rappahannock News Staff Writer
Many Rappahannock County businesses and homes lie just outside of the Shenandoah National Park’s boundary, in areas of thick vegetation.
The composition of these areas has changed in recent years, thanks to the hemlock wooly adelgid, gypsy moth caterpillars and Tropical Storm Isabel leaving countless numbers of downed trees.
In an effort to reduce the likelihood that a fire would start in the National Park, ideas, suggestions and comments by local, residents will be evaluated and compiled in an environmental analysis.
The result of this study will be a revised Fire Management Plan for the National Park.
The current plan has been in place since 1993.
"Public scoping is the first step in the process,” said Karen Beck-Herzog, management assistant with Shenandoah National Park.
“The second phase will be an environmental assessment sent out for public view.”
Park officials hope to preserve natural and cultural resources by using several tools including fire suppression, non-fire fuel treatment, prescribed fire and wildland fire use.
“Ecologically speaking, Rappahannock County is actually in pretty good shape,” said Beck-Herzog.
No non-fire fuel treatments, such as mechanical treatments or herbicides have been needed in Rappahannock County since the Shenandoah complex fire in 2000 that encompassed approximately 17,000 acres of forest land, causing vegetation nutrients to naturally return to the soil.
The National Park Service
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