Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks Special Management Areas
Folger K. 2013. Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks Special Management Areas. National Park Service. Grant Grove and Giant Forest areas of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks
Special Management Areas (SMAs) are designed to balance natural process restoration with the need to preserve the important scenic value of the forest in heavily used portions of groves where there are large numbers of visitors or developments. SMAs will be maintained as features with a managed landscape based on historical appearance. SMA protection does not exclude fire management activities. In these areas, prescribed burning can be done on a small scale to provide for public safety, and to prevent sudden, large-scale scenic changes. Fire management staff will consider prescribed burn unit size, the location of subsequent prescribed burns, and the protection of various scenic resources when planning projects in SMAs. The parks have two designated SMAs: the 22-acre Grant Tree SMA and the 15.6-acre Sherman Tree SMA (Figure 5-2). Both areas are defined by previous park documents. The Grant Tree SMA was described in Effect of Past Management Actions on the Composition and Structure of Vegetation in the Grant Tree Portion of Grant Grove (Kauper et al 1980). The Sherman Tree SMA was identified in Special Management Area Visual Resources Management Study for the Sequoia National Park Prescribed Fire Management Program (Dawson 1987). This SMA was reconfigured in 2013 because of substantial changes to trail and road footprints that that resulted in significant changes in use patterns and, therefore, viewshed for visitors.
- Type
- Geospatial Dataset
- Authors
- Folger, Karen
- Date of Issue
- 2013
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- KICA , SEKI , SEQU
- Keywords
- fire management, prescribed fire, scenic resources, special management area