Earlier this season, Colorado was in the spotlight when several of its national forests went up in smoke. Now it s Montana. That isn t what certain politicians would have you believe, though. Several western senators and Montana s own governor, Marc Racicot, who normally doesn t stoop to such tactics, have blamed the Clinton administration s policies of limiting logging for this year s spate of fires. These accusations conveniently ignore the fact that the summer of 2000 has been one of the driest on record, or that fires are raging everywhere, including logged-over forests, wilderness areas, and rural subdivisions.
Fires are simply a fact of life in the west, during Republican and Democratic administrations alike.
Many rivers in and around Yellowstone are being affected by the dangerously dry summer months. That s tough to pinpoint. Furthermore, I m not going to get into my politics on the subject, because my opinions are as biased as everyone else s. Instead, let s talk about the Yellowstone fires of 88 for a moment, its long-term effect on the region s wildlife, and how we can apply what has been learned to the year 2000. Only the riparian habitat along rivers was greening up.