NIMO in Yellowstone National Park In August of 2013 Yellowstone National Park had a small complex of fires burning that were being managed under a multiple objective strategy. Of the fires in the complex, the Alum fire had the most potential to impact park infrastructure, with its location southwest of Mud Volcano, about 5 miles north of the Fishing Bridge area and the large Lake Village developed area. The fire grew slowly until the afternoon of Aug. 17 when it ran 5 1/2 miles across relatively flat terrain in an eight hour period, growing from three acres to about 3,500 acres. A nearby weather station recorded the temperature as 80 degrees, RH at 10-15 percent and winds averaging 5-10 mph, gusting to 20. None of these weather factors are considered exceptional for late summer in the park, but all are considered at or exceeding local threshold levels for experiencing extreme fire behavior. This is the point where the Yellowstone fire management organization found itself in an interesting situation. Managing large, long duration Type III organizations is typically in the park’s wheelhouse, and what the fire program has specifically been designed to do. However, due to recent retirements and staff transfers, the fire management team felt that capacity was somewhat light, particularly in the ability to quickly develop robust near, mid and long term planning products required for effective management of the complex during peak visitation and fire seasons. The gut feeling was that a long Type II IMT was too much horsepower and, given the increasing regional indices, not the best use of what would be a high demand asset within the GACC. Complexity analyses confirmed that the parks feeling that we were in a “tweener” type of situation; a short term boost of planning and operational help for what would be a long duration event. During discussions with regional fire staff the idea of exploring availability of a National Incident Management Organization (NIMO) team came up. Long story short, a shorter NIMO team was ordered (Portland NIMO). For the next two days, the fire doubled in size, spreading to the east

and south towards Lake, with about nine miles of uncontained fire’s edge spread across the Central Plateau reaching within 2 ½ miles of the Lake Village development. For context, at any given time during tourist season, the Lake Village has an overnight population upwards of 5,000 people, including park and concessionaire employees residing there and visitors staying in the historic Lake Hotel or various campgrounds surrounding the village. Tens of thousands more travel through the area each day. Ordering a NIMO team proved to be a perfect and effective choice, especially due to the potential for the complex to ebb and flow until a season-ending event in late September. Even though a break in the weather with monsoonal flow slowed the spread of the fires during the NIMO team’s tour, the fires had the potential for a long-duration event that would have required multiple transfers of command between type 2 teams until the end of fire season. As opposed to the standard 60-person type 2 team roster, NIMO brought a 20-person team and lived up to the their mission to be responsive, flexible and adaptive to fit the needs of the park. Yellowstone was supportive of the NIMO team’s priority to provide training and successional planning, and as a result several trainees performed in various roles on the fire. While the majority of the NIMO team was only assigned to the fire from Aug. 21-30, the team left critical tangible products for long term management, such as a Tactical Firing Plan and an Aerial Ignitions Plan. The NIMO IMT was an adaptable, scalable and precision asset that quickly assimilated leader’s intent, desired end state and all of the institutional, operational and political complexity that accompanies a long duration wildland fire event in a park that receives in excess of 4 million visitors annually. Tim Reid Former Chief Ranger – Yellowstone NP [email protected]