Editing North Cascades National Park (section)

=== Fire ===
[[File:Copper Mountain Lookout WA NPS.jpg|thumb|Copper Mountain Fire Lookout|alt=A white-painted wooden building. It has many windows which have wooden covers above them. In the background are mountains.]]
In North Cascades National Park, fire was used by Native Americans in the region near present-day Ross Lake to clear out brush, to ease foot travel, and possibly to flush animals out of the foliage.<ref name=apostol/> Evidence found in the patterns of tree growth as well as from tree ring analysis indicates human-caused fires were created for many hundreds of years. Similar evidence is found in the Stehekin Valley, where both smaller low intensity fires and larger fires are suggested by the growth patterns and burn scars in tree ring evidence. The low-intensity fires that were likely human induced were only found in the easternmost regions of the park. In the subalpine regions such as the Thunder Creek area, the studies concluded fire occurs at frequencies ranging from 30&nbsp;years to 400&nbsp;years.<ref name="fireplan">{{cite web|title=North Cascades National Park Service Complex Fire Management Plan|url=https://www.nps.gov/noca/learn/management/upload/fmp-wfdss-final-lockedsigned-5-25-10-dt.pdf|publisher=National Park Service|access-date=April 3, 2018|date=April 2010}}</ref>{{rp|8}}

Across the entire North Cascades National Park Service Complex, between 1973 and 2003, there were 113 human-caused fires that burned {{convert|106|acre|abbr=on}}, and 264 lightning-caused fires that burned {{convert|11672|acre|abbr=on}}.<ref name="fireplan"/>{{rp|13}} During this period, the largest fire consumed {{convert|4118|acre|abbr=on}}, mostly in Ross Lake National Recreation Area. North Cascades National Park Complex has three different zones with varying ratings for fire potential and severity.<ref name="fire">{{cite web|title=Fire Ecology in the North Cascades|url=http://www.npshistory.com/publications/noca/research-catalog/fire.htm|publisher=National Park Service|access-date=April 3, 2018}}</ref> The park is managed as the Skagit Fire Management Unit (FMU) and has a low frequency of large natural fires that occur on average only every 50 to 400&nbsp;years.<ref name="fireplan"/>{{rp|36}}

North Cascades National Park has a condition type that shows "...natural (historical) range of variability of vegetation characteristics; fuel composition; fire frequency, severity and pattern; and other associated disturbances."<ref name="fireplan"/>{{rp|22}} This condition type, in keeping with the wilderness designation applied to most of the park, equates to a natural "let it burn" policy overall, so long as people and historical property are not threatened and the fire was lightning-caused. As part of the management plan, the few historic structures in the FMU are prioritized for fire protection including backcountry shelters like [[Beaver Pass Shelter]], and [[Fire lookout tower|fire lookouts]] such as [[Sourdough Mountain Lookout|Sourdough]], [[Desolation Peak (Washington)|Desolation]] and [[Copper Mountain Fire Lookout|Copper lookout]], all of which are on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].<ref name="fireplan"/>{{rp|42}}