Management Unit / Wilderness Name(s)

Sawtooth National Recreation Area, Stanley Ranger Station

Matrix Problem Categories:

  • Campsite Management

Matrix Strategy Categories:

  • Modify Type of Use and Behavior

Recreation Impact Type:

Campfires; excessive deterioration of sites, impacts from both a social and a biological point of view.

Management Objectives:

  • Return the area to a desirable or acceptable level of impact.
  • Manage the impacts rather than restrict the opportunity for people to visit the wilderness.
  • Avoid the creation of new impacts.
  • Keep regulations focused and not unnecessarily restrictive of users.

Actions Taken:

Action 1: Prohibit fires in all off-trail areas.

Rationale: Research has proven that it is most important to protect more pristine areas before the impacts occur.

Action 2: Mandate use of fire blankets or fire pans where fires are allowed.

Rationale: Allow for use while protecting the resource.

Action 3: Prohibit campfires in specific drainages.

Rationale:Makes education and enforcement efforts much simpler to do this by drainage instead of on a lake by lake or destination by destination basis.

Action 4: Other regulations and restrictions such as group size limits, permit system.

Rationale: Part of a comprehensive management approach.

Implementation Details:

How well did the actions work?

  • The prohibition on off-trail fires has had marginal success, but it’s an ongoing effort. Both manager observation and public comment indicate things are improving.
  • There is a big learning curve for the public on fire blankets and fire pans. People are bringing them more, but they often don’t understand how to use them properly.

How is the success of these actions monitored?

  • Wilderness ranger reports; still cleaning up a lot of fires, in the off-trail areas, but existing sites are looking better and acceptance is growing.
  • Simple observations on woody debris presence, also some surveys using fuel-loading techniques to quantify dead and down wood supplies.

What aspects of implementation worked to help attain desired conditions?

  • Education efforts: exhibits at ranger stations, posters, handouts.
  • Fire pan/fire blanket requirements make the whole issue of fire impacts more understandable to people.
  • Outreach to educate scout groups, church groups, and outfitters is key.
  • Working with “front-liners” at the ranger stations is also very important.
  • Without fire rings, some sites are no longer use, reducing campsite proliferation and impacts.

What aspects did not work?

  • You have to reach the public before they show up for their trip so that they can be properly equipped.
  • People don’t know how to use fire blankets and pans correctly, it’s not intuitive.
  • There aren’t many places to buy a fire blanket.
  • A big problem arose from people using old fire shelters as fire blankets; they don’t work, they fall apart and create a big clean-up headache! They make more of a mess than aluminum foil.
  • It’s a hard issue for the public to understand.
  • When the weather gets bad, non-compliance becomes much worse.

Public Acceptance:

  • The public has been quite accepting as far as feedback goes; outfitters objected the most, despite their stock support, to carrying a fire pan.
  • Although objections were minimal, compliance is only modest, and a lot of fire rings still get cleaned up.

Unexpected results:

  • Many people simply bring a stove instead of getting a fire blanket/pan.
  • Without fire rings, it’s harder to identify what is a campsite when doing inventory/monitoring.

Lessons Learned and Tips for Others:

  • .Availability of the pans and blankets is not good; a check-out or sales program at ranger stations may work best.
  • Education is a must, and you have to reach people BEFORE they arrive for a trip.
  • Don’t give out old fire shelters to be used as fire blankets! It’s a very bad idea.
  • Make things as simple and clear as you can.

Estimated Costs to Implement:

  • Prior to these efforts, about 60% of wilderness ranger field work was revolving around fire ring clean-up. This situation has improved, and has offset some of the costs of implementing the above restrictions, although now what clean-up does take place must be done to a very high standard.
  • Total education to date has cost about $30,000 which includes posters, hand outs, and salary for a GS-6 and a GS-4 focusing on education, patrol work of 3-4 seasonal rangers. Some of this cost was offset with grant money—trying something innovative can be a way to get more funding too.

Additional Supporting Information:

  • Sawtooth Campfire Brochure and Sawtooth Fire Pans brochure (see the Wilderness Interpretation and Education Toolbox at:
  • Sawtooth Campfire Restrictions Rationale (see the Common Strategies for Common Wilderness Recreation Problems matrix)

Contact for more information:

name: Liese Dean

position: Wilderness Program Director

email:

phone: 208-774-3017