Update at 3:30 p.m. on April 16 — University of Alaska-Fairbanks personnel completed burning and extinguished the six piles. This concludes this pile burning in the Yankovich Road area.
Update at 11:20 a.m. on April 16 — University of Alaska-Fairbanks personnel have started burning the six debris piles.
Note: Corrected to clearly identify the UAF as the agency conducting the pile burning.
FAIRBANKS, Alaska — Starting as early as today, the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, in coordination with the Alaska Fire Science Consortium and the BLM Alaska Fire Service, is planning to burn a handful of woody debris piles on the North Campus over the next two weeks. Fewer than 10 piles are targeted for burning. These are remnants from firefighting efforts during the 2021 Yankovich Road Fire, which occurred near residences on Yankovich Road.
The piles are located near the Wildfire Walk interpretive trail, which winds through the 2021 burn area and was developed by the Alaska Fire Science Consortium as an outdoor learning experience.
Burning will occur on one or more days, depending on weather conditions and while snow remains on the ground. Operations will take place between approximately 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. All piles will be fully extinguished by the end of each day, and the area will be monitored for at least 48 hours after each burn.
Residents in the Yankovich Road neighborhood may see smoke during this time. The public is advised not to be alarmed.
A wildfire ignited in July 2021 in the North Campus area near homes on Yankovich Road and was quickly suppressed. The location, where houses intermix with flammable forest vegetation, is part of what’s known as the Wildland-Urban Interface. In the weeks following the fire, fire professionals and researchers installed permanently marked monitoring transects to track post-fire changes in vegetation and fuel accumulation. Annual remeasurements are helping monitor these changes over time, transforming the site into a “living classroom” where students, scholars, visitors, and the curious can observe the long-term effects of wildland fire and suppression actions in a boreal black spruce forest.
The Wildfire Walk is currently accessible only by skis via the UAF North Campus ski trails from the Large Animal Research Station on Yankovich Road.
Categories: AK Fire Info, Prescribed Fire
Alaska Wildland Fire Information 