The Northwest Planning Area is located in west central Alaska (Fig. 1). Wildfires have been a very common occurrence in this part of the state. An analysis of fire occurrence has been made for all BLM lands within this planning unit. Blocks of land are found on the Seward Peninsula, in the Nulato Hills, and south of the western Brooks Range. The Buckland block, just east of the Seward Peninsula, contains all lands within the area of the Buckland Habitat Management Plan, including lands in the Central Yukon Planning area.
The analysis is based upon two sources: computerized BLM fire records for 1956-1982 and all fire reports which were available for that period. Basic information from all fire reports is stored on the Honeywell 6600 computer at the USDI Denver Service Center.