Librarian
Introduction
NPS/Jim Peaco, nps.gov, Photo Gallery Fire - Fires of 1988
A 'mosaic' burn pattern, showing areas of damaged and undamaged land in close proximity
The fires that occurred in Yellowstone National Park through the summer of 1988 provoked a great deal of controversy over an age-old question: To what degree should wildfires be suppressed by human intervention or allowed to burn themselves out? In early summer of 1988, lightning-caused fires were allowed to burn without human intervention under the assumption that the July rains would put them out. However, Yellowstone experienced a historic three-month drought which allowed these fires to continue burning. Park management switched to an active suppression policy on all fires on July 21 (focused on controlling the size of the fires and keeping them away from inhabited areas), but only snow in early September truly put them out. There were vigorous debates at the time over who was responsible for the damage to the park and surrounding communities. Possible irreversible damage to Yellowstone's ecosystem was also of great concern. A National Policy Review team concluded that the fire policies in national parks and wildland areas were more or less reasonable but recommended improvements which were incorporated in the early 1990's. The park's ecosystem regrew and recovered, although animal habitats and food sources were temporarily altered.
Resources
Scorched Earth by Call Number: SD421.32.Y45 B37 2007ISBN: 9781597261531Publication Date: 2007-03-01"In 1988, forest fires raged in Yellowstone National Park, destroying more than a million acres. As the nation watched the land around Old Faithful burn, a longstanding conflict over fire management reached a fever pitch. Should the U.S. Park and Forest Services suppress fires immediately or allow some to run their natural course? When should firefighters be sent to battle the flames and at what cost? In Scorched Earth, Barker, an environmental reporter who was on the ground and in the smoke during the 1988 fires, shows us that many of today's arguments over fire and the nature of public land began to take shape soon after the Civil War. As Barker explains, how the government responded to early fires in Yellowstone and to private investors in the region led ultimately to the protection of 600 million acres of public lands in the United States."
Articles marked IN-PERSON are available at the IFSI Library's physical location, and clicking on the link will take you to the catalog record. Those marked ONLINE can be directly accessed by clicking on the link.
- ONLINE - Fire Management Notes - Could the 1988 Fires in Yellowstone Have Been Avoided by Prescribed Burning?Starting on page 7 of this journal, a researcher at the Fire Sciences Laboratory in Missoula, MI lays out why he believes prescribed burnings before 1988 would not have prevented the Yellowstone Fires but might have mitigated some of the damage it did outside the park.
- IN-PERSON - Fire Command - Fire Blasts into Old Faithful ComplexThis article, on pg. 11-13 of the January 1989 issue of Fire Command, gives a day-by-day retelling of the events leading up to the North Fork Wildfire in early September, just before snow put out the Yellowstone fires for good.
- National Park Service - 1988 Fires | Yellowstone National ParkThe National Park Service resource on the 1988 fires presents, among other things, several timelines of events, answers to Frequently Asked Questions, and an explanation of how the area recovered from the fire.
- Remembering The 1988 Yellowstone FiresNPR discusses the history of Yellowstone, the worst day of the fires - 'Black Saturday' - and how heightened media coverage led to a misperception that Yellowstone would be allowed to burn completely down.