Fall 2020 Updates: Week 7

It’s a chilly Thursday at 2 p.m. and you know what that means! It’s week seven of our fall 2020 update. It is an absolutely beautiful fall day and Shenandoah National Park has been beautiful this entire time we’ve been out here. Definitely. Make sure you stay tuned for some pictures at the end of this video that have been taken this week here in the park. Yeah, and if you have any questions during this video please put those in the comments below. And, we are going to bring you a peak check, and you’re going to also see some of our pictures on our website, our social media pages, and make sure that you still share the pictures with us on our Facebook or Instagram page.

00:40 - So we’re actually going to do our peak check now. Check out that mountain! Yeah, as you can see on Neighbor Mountain there’s a lot of leaf drop in the higher elevations, and then as you drop to those lower elevations there’s still a lot of color, and that’s true for most of the park since it is about 100 miles long. There’s still autumn views all around, expansive views actually because of the leaf drop, and we did experience more leaf drop this past weekend, and probably today because of all the wind that we’re having right now, because we’re moving into that perfect fall weather. It’s crisp weather, the clear skies, it’s pretty comfortable to go hiking now, and you can still see some color in those areas, and then there’s it’s great for wildlife viewing. So we still invite you guys to come, and we actually have a little bit warmer this weekend–60s.

It’s a little bit cooler up here than it is in the valley, so make 01:40 - sure that you are prepared for your hike and wear layers. That’s really important, especially when these colder temps drop in the afternoon and the evening. So you know you were talking about that crisp air, and it is definitely wonderful to hike on a day like that, but also at night that crisp air gives a beautiful view of the night sky. The humidity is gone so you can see a lot more clearly and I’ve talked about it before here in Shenandoah National Park. The night skies are some of the best you can see in all of the east coast, as long as it’s not too windy.

But, the planets are 02:14 - actually aligned right now. They’re all kind of on the same side of the sun, and so if you go out past sunset–we’re gonna try to get through this wind right–after sunset, which is easy to do, because it’s at like five o’clock. You know with daylight savings and the shorter days, you can look east and you can see a big bright red star in the sky and that’s mars. Then if you look towards the south you can see Jupiter and Saturn right next to each other in the sky, and that’s really amazing to be able to see those two planets. They’re really close to each other and one thing that’s really cool is they are on their way to conjunction, and that means they’re actually going to appear to be one star.

Again, it’s a planet, 02:56 - but it looks like a star in the night sky. They haven’t been this close since the year 1623. That’s really cool to be able to see that. Maybe take a telescope out –you can see both Jupiter its moons and Saturn all in the same shot through your telescope. Also, if you wake up before sunrise, which again is pretty easy–it’s at 6:43 on Thursday–you can see Mercury and Venus right next to the sun where it’s going to be rising, and you don’t get to see Mercury that often either, so there’s a lot of really cool stuff going on. The Leonids meteor shower is peaking in November on the 16th, which is coinciding with the new moon.

So you’ll 03:35 - have a beautiful night around the 15th and the 16th of November to go and see a meteor shower, and I think here in the park is a good place to do that. Yeah, so I will set my alarm and mark my calendar so I don’t miss it. Alright, so we’re going to toss it over to Dave Robinson who is the Fire Management Officer and he’s going to talk about the fall fire season. We are in our fall fire season. Typically that runs from early-to-mid October into about mid-to-late November, until we start to receive heavier amounts of precipitation typically associated with the onset of winter conditions. Our conditions so far are normal. What does normal really mean to us? Normal means we have an opportunity potentially to have fires occur and spread here at the park, however we’re not anticipating conditions that are going to really cause or result in catastrophic effects or large fires.

We’ve had moisture on and off the past couple weeks, every few days. And, we have not had any significant drying trends, and we did not start our fall out in a drought-type situation. So, our fuel moistures–that’s a measurement of moisture of how things gain or lose moisture. Obviously the drier fuels typically cause increased fire spread. The material on the forest floor, the leaves, the branches, twigs, things like that.

05:02 - Our fuel moistures are normal to slightly above normal, so things are not very dry, and I don’t anticipate a significant cause of alarm for large fires. Campfires are only allowed in those developed, designated areas. Those are primarily our campgrounds and our picnic areas. We urge our visitors, if you’re planning to have a campfire, make it an appropriate size. Only make it as big as you need to be, as you need to have that fire to be to accomplish the task. You might have to extinguish it and leave it rapidly, so proper size is important. Bring supplies and materials to take care of extinguishing your fire. Bring a pail for water or a jug, and have a small shovel. When you’re going to extinguish that campfire you want to make sure that you drown it with water. You’re going to stir those coals, and you’re going to feel it for heat, and do not leave that fire until you no longer feel heat. That means that it’s out cold.

We had a very active summer 06:09 - regarding supporting regional and national fire operations from about mid-June, late June through most recently this past weekend. We’ve continued to support national operations in the western U.S. Here, from Shenandoah, we’ve sent 25 folks out. Just want to let folks know that we are planning on conducting a prescribed fire here at Shenandoah National Park later this fall if conditions are appropriate. We have 40 acres up near Big Meadows at the Big Meadow itself on the eastern side of the meadow that are targeted for a prescribed fire treatment this fall or potentially next spring depending on those conditions.

We utilize fire to restore 06:56 - the health and function of the ecosystem of the meadow itself and reduce woody stems. What we’ve seen over the years is that briars, locus, and and raspberries continually are moving in from that the edge there along the meadow, and actually reducing the native grasses that we historically found in the meadow, and we can utilize a prescribed fire treatment to reduce those woody stems and stimulate the growth of the the native vegetation and improve the the forbes and the grasses in the meadow. A fire is very important for that ecosystem. It’s a natural disturbance, and it creates that nutrient cycling um to improve the health and function of that ecosystem. Also, we see a reduction in the fuels and that reduces the threat of an unwanted ignition during warmer drier times of year when the the grass ecosystem there could be at threat from a wildland fire. It’s not the only place we conduct prescribed fires.

There’s also a place and a time for fire in our wooded ecosystems as well, 08:09 - and we’re constantly looking for opportunities to utilize fire as a tool to reduce the threat of a wildland fire in in those environments and improve the health of the ecosystem and in the forested areas of the park as well. Thanks, Dave. It’s always great to check in and it’s really a good reminder to be safe when there’s a–when you have a fire in the park. Absolutely, so we want to remind you real quick if you want to get into the park quicker and you can skip some of the lines, the best way to do that is to go to recreation.gov, you can get your pass right there online, and it’s a much faster way to get into the park and enjoy these beautiful fall days. Yeah, so since we’re winding down our fall season and heading into the winter season, some of our facilities are closing.

One big one we have Big Meadows Campgrounds still open this weekend, 08:57 - and they have first-come, first-serve sites. If you want to see the remainder of our facilities and areas that are closing, you can check our website. Definitely. We’ve got a lot of closures that are coming up. You can find them all on our website, like she said, at “Plan Your Visit” and then you’ll see the “Operating Hours” button, and it’s got everything there that you need to know. Yep! And, then other closings such as Skyline Drive and the event that we have inclement weather, you can call our uh park number.

Yep! And, that is 540-999-3500, option one, option one. I know you love this. Alright, so that’s all that we have for this week for you all. Next week we’re going to be talking to Evan Childress, and he is going to tell us what the animals are going to do in the winter. Probably get cold, because that’s at least what I’m doing. Or eat–that’s what I’ll be doing. A little bit of both sounds good! I’m Ranger Scott and I’m Ranger Allysah! We will see you next week! Enjoy these pictures that have been taken around the park this week. Yep! Bye! .