Handout: Newspaper Article
The following article from the Austin American-Statesmandescribes the effects that the immense forest fires of 1988 hadon the wild lands of YellowstoneNational Park. As you read, look for causes and their effects.
Yellowstone Makes a TriumphantReturn
Ten Years After Fires
B Y B R U C EB A B B I T T
1What a difference a decade makes. Ten years ago this month, YellowstoneNational Park was a sea of flames. Some of the largest wildfires in U.S. history swept restlessly across the park’s magnificent terrain, incinerating forests, threatening historic buildings. The news media andpoliticians fanned the flames even higher. Yellowstone, they said, was devastated.
2Night after night, horrific images of ash and flame flashed across America’s TV screens. One evening, after showing an enormous expanse of blackened forest, network news anchor Tom Brokaw solemnlyconcluded: “This is what’s left of Yellowstone tonight.”
3But guess what? Fire didn’t destroy Yellowstone. Ten years later, we realize fire had the opposite effect. Fire rejuvenated Yellowstone. Elk and other wildlife are healthy. Tourism is thriving. Biodiversity is booming. Newforests are rising from the ashes of old ones. Therecovery is so dramatic it deserves a closer look.
4First, a bit of background: The 1988 fires were gigantic. They swept over roughly793,000 of Yellowstone’s 2.2million acres—one third of thepark. Some were lightning-caused;others were of humanorigin. The $120 million firefightingeffort amassed againstthem has been called thelargest in U.S. history. Theheroic work saved many key structures. But in the wildlands, it made almost no difference. What put Yellowstone’sfires out was notretardant-droppingplanes or armies of firefighters on the ground. Itwas a quarter inch of autumnrain.
5In July and August, as firesraged across the park, businessownersfumed. Our future isruined, they said. Tourism isdead. But today, tourism isvery much alive. Yellowstonehas set numerous visitationrecords since 1988. Fire hasnot repelled tourists; it has attracted them—just as itattracts many species ofwildlife. Ten years later, thenumber one question asked ofYellowstone naturalists remains “What are the effects ofthe fires?”
6The answer is simple: Thefires were therapeutic. Since1988, some seventy scientificresearch projects have lookedat various aspects of theYellowstone fires. Not one hasconcluded the fires were harmful. That sounds too good to betrue. But it is. The science isthere to prove it.
7Come to Yellowstone thissummer and see for yourself. Pull off the road near IceLake,east of the NorrisGeyserBasin. Here the fire burnedespecially savagely. Hundredsof thousands, perhaps millions,of mature lodgepole pine treeswere destroyed. But today, theforest floor is a sea of green—knee-high lodgepoles planted,literally, by the fires of 1988.
8Yellowstone’s lodgepoleforest is a place of mystery. Inorder to live, it must first die. Itmust burn. The fire that sweptthrough here worked anancient magic: It scorchedlodgepole cones, melted their sticky resin, and freed theseeds locked inside. Withinminutes, a new forest wasplanted.
9By suppressing wildfire, asSmokey Bear has taught us todo, we interrupt nature’scycles. We rob our westernforests of something they needdesperately. We steal their seasonof rebirth. Without fire, pine forests grow senile, proneto disease, and unnaturallythick. There are lessons inthese lodgepoles. Too muchprotection is no virtue. We canharm what we try to save. I’mnot suggesting that we worshipfire— that we let it run wildoutside of natural parks andwilderness areas. But we canrespect its wisdom. We cantreat it, when possible, as anally, not an enemy, and use itmore frequently under controlledconditions to protectcommunities and make forestshealthier.
10Look closely around IceLake and you will almostsurely see something else:wildlife. Bison, elk, mule deer,white-tailed deer, bighorn sheep, and mountain goatshave all prospered since 1988. Just as fire rejuvenated lodgepoles,so, too, did it revitalizeplants that grazing animals eat. Walt Disney got it wrong:Bambi and his forest friendshave nothing to fear—andmuch to gain—from fire.
11If you’re lucky, you mayalso see Yellowstone’s king ofbeasts: the grizzly bear. To agrizzly, wildfire is a meal ticket. Fires kill trees, which fall tothe ground and fill up withinsects: grizzly sushi. Others enjoy the feast, too. Before1988, three-toed woodpeckerswere almost nonexistent inYellowstone. After 1988, oneornithologist spotted thirty in one day. But dead lodgepolesare more than lunch counters;they are housing opportunities,home sites for mountain bluebirds,tree swallows, and other“cavity-nesting” birds andmammals.
12Ten years ago, the newsmedia said fire “blackened”Yellowstone. Today, we knowthe reverse is true. Fire haspainted the park brighter,added color and texture to itsecosystem, and increased thediversity and abundance of itsspecies. As Yellowstone scientist John Varley put it recently,“The biodiversity story overthe past ten years has beenfascinating. Biodiversity hasgone through a revolution at Yellowstone.”