1988 Fires: Yellowstone Did Not Burn Down
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Transcript
In 1988, television made it look as if Yellowstone were being destroyed.
More than one-third of the park was affected by fire.
The scale was enormous.
The conclusion that the ecosystem had been ruined was wrong.
Early that summer, managers followed policies allowing some naturally caused fires to burn under monitored conditions.
Then exceptional drought and wind transformed fire behavior.
By mid-July, managers stopped allowing new natural fires to burn.
After July 21, all fires were being suppressed as resources allowed.
Thousands of firefighters participated.
Weather ultimately stopped the major advance with rain and snow in September.
That chronology corrects a persistent myth that park managers simply watched Yellowstone burn because of an ideological “let it burn” policy.
They changed strategy as conditions changed.
Even the largest suppression effort then available could not control a landscape-scale fire under extreme weather.
Ecologically, the fires became an extraordinary research opportunity.
Many lodgepole pine forests regenerated.
Fire-created mosaics produced varied habitat.
Only a relatively small number of large mammals died directly compared with sensational predictions.
The event improved public understanding that fire can be a natural ecological process rather than only catastrophe.
For visitors, burned forests can look damaged for decades.
Ecology does not share our preference for green continuity.
Yellowstone in 1988 was transformed.
Transformation is not the same as destruction.
The important management question became how to live with fire intelligently rather than pretend a national park should never burn.