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In 1988, the driest year in the region's recorded history, wildfires burned 793,000 acres (about 36 percent) of Yellowstone National Park. More than 25,000 firefighters, as many as 9,000 at one time, worked on the wildfires at a total cost of about $120 million, but they were not able to prevent burning in many parts of the Park. While a few proclaimed it a disaster and the Park a ruin, long-term studies of the aftermath show that the Park is naturally and rapidly recovering and that the health of the forests and wildlife benefited from the 1988 fires.

Landscapes such as those seen in Yellowstone have long been shaped by fire and not just the cool, creeping ground fires often described as "good" for grass production. The natural history of fire in the region includes large-scale conflagrations sweeping across the Park's vast volcanic plateaus -- hot, wind-driven fires burning the trunks to the crowns of the pine and fir trees at several hundred-year intervals.

Wildfires leave a mosaic of burn patterns and the 1988 Yellowstone fires are a good example of this. In some places, intense crown fires had burned out all ground cover and killed all above-ground vegetation. But elsewhere, less-intense ground fires left trees alive. And the patchwork allowed the forest to regenerate much faster than expected.

Wildflowers and shrubs also survived in unexpectedly great numbers because the soil only slightly charred. Surveys revealed that less than 1% of soils were heated enough to burn below-ground plant seeds and roots causing plants to sprout from roots or rhizomes and an abundant growth of wildflowers. Regeneration was very rapid, and it came from within the burned area.

And, where lodgepole pines that need severe fire to reproduce were burned, seed densities ranged from 50,000 to 1 million per acre, beginning a new cycle of forest growth under the blackened canopy above. The first seedlings of Engelmann spruce, subalpine fir, Douglas-fir, and whitebark pine also quickly emerged. Aspen reproduction has increased because fire stimulated the growth of suckers from the aspen's underground root system and left behind bare mineral soil that provides good conditions for aspen seedlings. Even the really big fires leave a legacy of the plants that were there before the fire.

The fires also had surprisingly little direct or long-term impact on wildlife. Surveys found that 345 elk (of an estimated 40,000-50,000), 36 deer, 12 moose, 6 black bears, and 9 bison died in greater Yellowstone as a direct result of the fires. Studies on survival among elk and bison in a sagebrush grassland in Yellowstone's northern sector found that fires accounted for only 6 to 10 percent of observed mortality. Most deaths were due to normal winter weather. The fires have had no observable impact on the number of grizzly bears in greater Yellowstone.

Cavity-nesting birds that live in holes of dead or rotting trees, such as bluebirds, had more dead trees for their nests; birds dependent on mature forests, however, such as boreal owls, lost habitat. No fire-related effects have been observed in the fish populations or the angling experience in the six rivers that have been monitored regularly since 1988.

"Mother nature is taking care of herself pretty well," ecologist Jay Anderson of Idaho State University told Science magazine for the article "Yellowstone Rising Again...". “Fish and mammals survived surprisingly well, and annual weeds covered most of the charred areas the next year. Today, lodgepole pines -- which dominated the park for 10,000 years -- are poking through the shrubs and weeds, indicating a return of the park's old ecosystem.”

For more information contact Bob Ekey, Director, Northern Rockies Office of The Wilderness Society, 406-586-1600, Bob_Ekey@tws.org

“Big fires are not detrimental to the system in any way. It's difficult for the human-wild land interaction, but from the perspective of plants and animals, fire is a normal event, well within their capacity to deal with. The natural fire regime in the Yellowstone area includes a hot, crown fire that replaces the whole forest and the cycle begins again about every 100 to 300 years."