The Western Wildfires of 1988

A Forest's Rebirth from Devastation

To appease the American public's concern over the fire and subsequent devastation of areas of Yellowstone Park, a position paper was developed through the National Park Service by the U.S. Department of the Interior. The paper explained, in depth, the fire management policies in force and the ecological benefits expected to occur in the wake of such a huge, natural disaster. The following report contains excerpts of the position statement.

By mid-July, extensive interagency fire containment/suppression efforts were being utilized by the National Park Service and her sister agencies throughout the greater Yellowstone area, the surrounding national forests, and in Grand Teton National Park, attempting to suppress the unprecedented wildfires experienced this season in that portion of the United States.

1988 was the year theAmerican West survived the most severe fire season in its recorded history, at a time of the driest summer on record. Extremely dry conditions combined with strong, gusting winds created an almost unprecedented situation, and resulted in more extensive fire spread conditions than any time since the drought years of the 1930's.

Last winter provided a below average snow pack, but most winters in the past decade were also below normal, yet were followed by cool moist summers. (Summer precipitation for the last seven years has been 200-400% above normal.) Earlier this Spring the area had rains that were 200% above average, leading forecasters to believe in a reoccurence of weather patterns similar to the last seven years. The National Weather Service's 30- and 90-day forecasts for the region in early summer predicted above average moisture.

Monitored fires early in the summer in Yellowstone behaved for a number of weeks much as they had in previous years. Of some 20 lightning-caused fires started in the early summer, eleven died out on their own, confirming at the time that fire behavior was similar to experiences in the past. But almost no precipitation fell in July (this has never happened in the park's 112-year weather record), and fire conditions changed dramatically throughout the entire Northwestern region of the United States.

Skeletal trees resembled ghostly spectres still standing in the dense smoke as Yellowstone's fires raged across thousands of acres of forest land. Photo courtesy of National Park Service/Jim Peaco— photographer.

In Yellowstone Park, monitored lightning-caused fires that exceeded the previously defined prescriptions were re-classified as destructive wildfire and full suppression/containment efforts were undertaken. Also, several fires started by both humans and lightning began encroaching upon the park from adjoining national forest lands.

As August arrived, the anticipated normal seasonal weather changes did not materialize, and the Northwest experienced a severe drought along with high daytime temperatures, low humidity, and strong, gusty winds. The fine fuel moisture levels (normally around 25% for this time of year) reached an unusual low of only 2%.

These conditions caused fires to grow and burn very rapidly and actively, making them virtually impossible to extinguish and extremely difficult to contain or suppress in the rugged, remote wilderness terrain of the greater Yellowstone area. Fires under these conditions were manipulated, guided and/or suppressed in the park and throughout the neighboring states of Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. But the simple fact was that without help from the weather (rain or snow), there was no human power or technology available to extinguish wildfires once they had reached sufficient proportions.

There were more than 50 fires inside of Yellowstone this season; 14 went out

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on their own, 24 were contained or suppressed, 4 natural starts burned into other fires, and 8 large fires continued to burn as late as September. Five of these eight burned into Yellowstone after starting on adjacent lands outside. Crews valiantly tried everything humanly possible to control them.

By mid-July, over 9,500 fire fighters, including four U.S. Army batallions, were actively working to contain or suppress the different fires burning in the greater Yellowstone area.

While it appeared that much of the park was involved in fires, the actual percentage of the park's total acreage that was burned is relatively small. To date about 600,000 acres of Yellowstone National Park's 2.2 million acres were affected by fire, but less than 40% of the vegetation, on an average, was burned within many of the fire perimeters.

National Park Service Fire Management policies and the Yellowstone ecosystem

Fire as a natural force has been operating in Yellowstone ecosystems for at least the last 12,000 years. In the late 1800's, however, the advent of European man and his fire suppression efforts effectively stopped fires almost totally in the Yellowstone area for nearly 100 years, and scientists estimate that the last major burns in the greater Yellowstone area of Northwestern Wyoming occurred 250 years ago.

Firefighters check on smoldering embers on the tireline. (NPS photo)

Almost 100 years of a total fire suppression policy in Yellowstone (1872-1972) led to unnatural accumulations of down and dead trees, as well as a particularly old growth forest, thereby increasing fuel levels and the potential for runaway wildfire. Beginning in 1972, acknowledging the natural role of fire in sustaining the forests and grasslands of the park, the National Park Service began allowing some lightning-caused fires to burn themselves out.

All park fires whether man-caused or natural, however, have been managed according to criteria in the park's fire management plan in line with National Park Service policy. Yellowstone's approved fire management plan, which has also been approved by other Department of Interior agencies and the U.S. Forest Service, has had fourbasic goals:

1. To permit where practical lightning-caused fires to burn them-

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selves out under natural conditions.

2. To prevent wildfire from destroying human life, property, historic and cultural sites, special natural features or endangered species.

3. To suppress wildfire in as safe, cost-effective and environmentally sensitive ways as possible.

4. To resort to prescribed burning when and where necessary to reduce hazardous fuels (fuels are primarily dead and downed trees).

During the past 16 years, the park has been guided by these objectives with much success, and much has been learned from the experience. Researchers have discovered, for example, that tens of thousands of lightning strikes fizzle out and burn no significant acreage at all. Eighty percent of the fire starts go out by themselves, burning less than one acre. During these years Yellowstone has lost no human lives, had no significant human injury, nor lost any park structures or special features, and has created, not destroyed, habitat for threatened or endangered species. Due to this season's highly unusual conditions, however, since mid-July all Yellowstone fires were classified as wildfires and a total suppression strategy was applied.

Fire: A natural process

For thousands of years, fire has played an integral part in the natural ecological processes of the mountains and prairies of the western regions of the North American Continent. Periodic, recurring fires caused by lightning are as much a part of the natural processes from which these vast ecosystems have evolved as are other naturally occurring forces of nature such as rains, droughts and blizzards.

Many species of native flora and fauna are dependent upon the effects of fire for their successful procreation and rejuvenation. Old stands of timber without the beneficial purging effects of fire result in excessive accumulations of down and dead plant material and underbrush, or "litter", on the forest floor. This not only hinders the growth of grasses and other vegetation, but excessive accumulations of such litter can lower soil moisture levels and temperatures, causing normal bacterial activity to drop and thus retard plant growth. Also, as more such litter accumulates, the potential for runaway wildfire increases. Periodic burning reduces this cover of litter and improves soil moisture, releasing nutrients that help recycle materials through the ecosystem, and leading to more vigorous, healthy vegetation and wildlife habitats.

Over 9,500 fire fighting volunteers were called to suppress the worst fire conditions in over a century. (NPS photo)

Many native American Indian groups understood the critical role of fire in nature. Some native American tribes even intentionally set fires on the great plains to help kill flies and mosquitoes, or to aid in attracting buffalo herds and other wildlife into areas of the newly sprouted grasses which result following a fire.

Effect on park wildlife

There was absolutely no evidence of any significant loss among the park's wildlife. Not one large animal was known to have been lost to the fires.

Elk were seen grazing near fire lanes and in burned areas within a few days after the fire's passage. The animals moved off leisurely as the fire approached, and returned shortly behind it. Elk and bison moved back into still smoking areas to escape the mosquitoes and flies that had besieged them since spring.

Bear experts believe the fires and smoke will have little or no effect on bear activity. Because bears are very mobile, it is unlikely that a bear would have been

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caught in the fires. In fact, the fires will create a positive effect on bear habitat by opening the canopy and allowing for new growth of vegetal food; bears generally are attracted to fresh burns because of the new vegetation and increased rodent populations.

Fire also increases the diversity of vegetation species and changes spatial distribution. Grasses and smaller bushes respond immediately after a fire. Small rodents, and larger ungulates such as elk, bison, deer and moose inhabit these areas as soon as new growth appears. Nutritional content of the new vegetation is usually enhanced because fire recycles nutrients locked up in wood. As these increased levels of nutrients enter watersheds, fish populations proliferate.

Long-term prognosis: Rebirth and renewal

Contrary to early published reports that focussed alarmingly only on the perceived, short-term "destruction" and "devastation," the 1988 season's fires in Yellowstone have, in broader perspective, constituted a rebirth, a renewal, of the park's ecosystems. They mark the end of one important life cycle but assure the beginning of the next.

In the segments within burn areas where trees were killed by fire, open areas will develop, and in those places seeds will germinate more readily, low growth will spring up within a very brief time, new and more varied shrubs and trees will emerge, and wildlife will return in even greater numbers than before. Many younger, healthier groves survived the fire. This produced the natural forest mosaic so characteristic of Yellowstone, and so rare in our modern world.

Yellowstone's current vegetation mosaic was created by numerous fires over the past 200-300 years and currently provides a varied habitat for the rich diversity of wildlife that abounds in the park. Elk, deer and grizzly bears will greatly benefit from the results of the season's fires. Bird populations generally considered to be in decline, such as mountain bluebirds and three-toed woodpeckers, will experience something of a population boom.

New growth will gradually replace the fire's devastation. (NFS photo)

The growth of the new biotic community began immediately following the burn. Some insects began to use the new food source provided by freshly killed trees. Root stalks of many plant species such as aspen and willow began to resprout. By the fourth growing season, the forest floor will be essentially a mat of grasses, flowers and shrubs. Seedlings of future forests (fir, spruce and pine) will become established. Plant growth will become lush and vigorous because of abundant mineral nutrients available from the ashes and because of increased light levels. In fact, many of these plant species actually needed the fires to enhance their survival in the vegetative community.

The National Park Service has already initiated an extensive research effort to capitalize on this opportunity to study the successive stages of rejuvenation and reforestration of the burned areas. Over the next few decades, similar research opportunities for the scientific and academic communities will abound in the park, similar to those provided by the Mount St. Helen's natural phenomenon in the State of Washington.

Relative to the effect of these fires on future fire activity — vegetation capable of sustaining another major fire — will be quite rare for decades following a bum of this magnitude. Lightning strikes and even firebrands from neighboring forest fire will only ignite small spots. A mosaic of young and mature plant communities provides a natural firebreak, reducing the number of fire starts and limiting fire size over time while sustaining a greater variety of animal species.

Should you visit Yellowstone this Fall, next Spring, or over the next few yars, you will be able to witness firsthand the effects of the natural role of this vital component in the natural processes of the wilderness ecosystem. Within about 20 years, new forests will be well established in burned areas, and an evenmore beautiful and spectacular Yellowstone will emerge.

Copies of the U.S. Department of the Interior's position on fire management, as it applies to the Yellowstone Park situation, are available, on request, through the NRPA Great Lakes Regional Office.

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