Bet On Fire 1988

[Jeff]

Anextensive interagency fire suppression effort was initiated in mid-July in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem in an attempt to control or contain this unprecedented series of wildfires. The extreme weather conditions and heavy, dry fuel accumulations presented even the most skilled professional firefighters with conditions rarely observed.

Fire fighting efforts were directed at controlling the flanks of fires and protecting lives and property in their paths. The fire experts on site generally agreed that only rain or snow could stop the fires. They were right: one-quarter inch of snow on September 11 stopped the advance of the fires.

By late September, as the fires were diminishing, plans were already underway in Yellowstone to develop comprehensive programs for all aspects of post-fire response. Scientists wanted to monitor the ecological processes following these major fires. The National Park Service cooperated with other agencies and independent researchers and institutions in developing comprehensive research directions for this unparalleled scientific opportunity. Observations actually began while the fires were still burning.

Burning at a variety of intensities, the fires killed many lodgepole pines and other trees but did not kill most other plants; they merely burned the tops, leaving roots to regenerate. Temperatures high enough to kill deep roots occurred in less than 0.1% of the park. Only under logs and in deep litter accumulations, where the fire was able to burn for several hours, did lethal heat penetrate more deeply into the soil. Where water was available, new plant growth began within a few days. In dry soils, the rhizomes, bulbs, seeds, and other reproductive tissues had to wait until soil moisture was replenished the following spring.

Though animal movements were sometimes affected dramatically by the passage of fires, relatively few animals died. However, portions of the northern range burned, which affected winter survival of grazing animals when coupled with summer drought conditions. In this and many other ways, fires dramatically altered the habitat and food production of Yellowstone for the short term.

The Yellowstone fires of 1988 collectively formed the largest wildfire in the recorded history of Yellowstone National Park in the United States. Starting as many smaller individual fires, the flames quickly spread out of control due to drought conditions and increasing winds, combining into several large conflagrations which burned for several months. The fires almost destroyed two major visitor destinations and, on September 8, 1988, the entire park was closed to all non-emergency personnel for the first time in its history.[6] Only the arrival of cool and moist weather in the late autumn brought the fires to an end. A total of 793,880 acres (3,213 km2), or 36 percent of the park, burned at varying levels of severity.[3]

At the peak of the firefighting effort, more than 9,000 firefighters were assigned to the fires in the park, assisted by dozens of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft which were used for water and fire retardant drops. With fires raging throughout the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and other areas in the western United States, the staffing levels of the National Park Service and other land management agencies were inadequate for the situation; more than 4,000 U.S. military personnel were soon brought in to assist in wildfire suppression efforts. The firefighting effort cost $120 million ($310 million in 2024).[4] Structure losses were minimized by concentrating firefighting efforts near major visitor areas, and eventually totaled $3.28 million ($8 million as of 2024).[7] No firefighters died while fighting the Yellowstone fires, though there were two fire-related deaths outside the park.

Before the late 1960s, fires were generally believed to be detrimental to parks and forests, and management policies were aimed at suppressing fires as quickly as possible. However, as the beneficial ecological role of fire became better understood in the decades prior to 1988, a policy was adopted of allowing natural fires to burn under controlled conditions, which proved highly successful in reducing the area lost annually to wildfires.

In contrast, in 1988, Yellowstone was overdue for a large fire, and, in the exceptionally dry summer, many smaller "controlled" fires combined. The fires burned discontinuously, leaping from one patch to another, leaving intervening areas untouched. Intense fires swept through some regions, burning everything in their paths. Tens of millions of trees and countless plants were killed by the wildfires, and some regions were left looking blackened and dead. However, more than half of the affected areas were burned by ground fires, which did less damage to hardier tree species. Not long after the fires ended, plant and tree species quickly reestablished themselves, and native plant regeneration has been highly successful.

The Yellowstone fires of 1988 were unprecedented in the history of the National Park Service and led to many questions about existing fire management policies. Media accounts of mismanagement were often sensational and inaccurate, sometimes wrongly reporting or implying that most of the park was being destroyed.[citation needed] While there were temporary declines in air quality during the fires, no adverse long-term health effects have been recorded in the ecosystem and, contrary to initial reports, few large mammals were killed by the fires, though there was a subsequent reduction in the number of moose.

In the eastern United States, with its significant rainfall, wildfires are relatively small and have rarely posed a great risk to life and property. As white settlements moved further west into drier areas, the first large-scale fires were encountered. Range fires on the Great Plains and forest fires in the Rocky Mountains are larger and more destructive than in the east.[8] A number of catastrophic fire events over the years greatly influenced fire management policies.[3]

The worst loss of life in United States history due to a wildfire occurred in 1871 when the Peshtigo Fire swept through Wisconsin, killing more than 1,200 people.[9] The Santiago Canyon Fire of 1889 in California and especially the Great Fire of 1910 in Montana and Idaho contributed to the philosophy that fire was a danger that needed to be suppressed.[10][11] The Great Fire of 1910 burned 3,000,000 acres (12,000 km2), destroyed a number of communities, and killed 86 people; this event prompted various land management agencies to emphasize wildfire suppression.[12] Prior to the 1960s, U.S. Government land agencies, including the National Park Service, generally followed the fire management policies established by the U.S. Forest Service, which oversees the majority of the nation's forestlands. That policy was to suppress all wildland fires.[13]

Before the middle of the 20th century, most forest managers believed that fires should be suppressed at all times.[14] By 1935, the U.S. Forest Service's fire management policy stipulated that all wildfires were to be suppressed by 10 a.m. the morning after they were first spotted.[15] Firefighting crews were established throughout public lands and generally staffed by young men during fire seasons. By 1940, firefighters known as smokejumpers would parachute out of airplanes to extinguish flames in remote locations. By the beginning of World War II, more than 8,000 fire lookout towers had been constructed in the United States. Though many have been torn down due to increased use of airplanes for fire spotting, two are still used each year in Yellowstone.[16] Firefighting efforts were highly successful, with the area burned by wildfires reduced from an annual average of 30,000,000 acres (120,000 km2) during the 1930s, to between 2,000,000 acres (8,100 km2) and 5,000,000 acres (20,000 km2) by the 1960s.[14] The need for lumber during World War II was high and fires that destroyed timberland were deemed unacceptable. In 1944, the U.S. Forest Service developed an ad campaign to help educate the public that all fires were detrimental, using a cartoon black bear named Smokey Bear. This iconic firefighting bear can still be seen on posters with the catchphrase "Only you can prevent forest fires".[17] Early posters of Smokey Bear misled the public into believing that western wildfires were predominantly human-caused. However, in Yellowstone, 78 percent of fires are caused by lightning, while only 22 percent are human-caused.[18]

However, some researchers in the 20th century argued that this policy should be changed, on the grounds that wildfires clean out the understory and dead plant matter, allowing economically important tree species to grow with less competition for nutrients. Native Americans would often burn woodlands to reduce overgrowth and increase grasslands for large prey animals such as bison and elk.[19][20] As early as 1924, environmentalist Aldo Leopold argued that wildfires were beneficial to ecosystems, and were necessary for the natural propagation of numerous tree and plant species. Over the next 40 years, increasing numbers of foresters and ecologists concurred regarding the benefits of wildfire to ecosystems. In 1963, a group of ecologists consulted by the National Park Service released the Leopold Report, officially known as Wildlife Management in the National Parks, recommending that wildfires should be allowed to periodically burn to restore the environmental balance in parks.[21] The Wilderness Act of 1964 helped to address the role of fire as a natural part of ecosystems.[11] By 1968, the National Park Service had adjusted its fire management policies that reflected new research. The service determined that fires that started naturally (by lightning) would be permitted to burn if they posed little risk to human life and property. The service also decreed that under prescribed conditions, controlled burns would be deliberately set to restore balance to ecosystems.[15]

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