The wildfires of 2000 were widespread throughout the Rocky Mountains and burned within all grizzly bear recovery zones. While the fires of 2000 burned more acreage than any year since the historic fires of 1910, their impact on grizzly bear recovery is viewed as largely beneficial. These widespread fires also provide numerous opportunities for future monitoring and evaluation of the impacts of wildfire on grizzly bears.
Fire is a natural process integral to maintenance of healthy ecosystems in the Rocky Mountains.
Grizzly bears have been living with fire in their habitat for thousands of years, and have evolved to maximize their ability to use burned areas and minimize the negative impacts of fire. The 2000 fires that occurred within remote wilderness portions of the grizzly bear recovery ecosystems, generally created a natural mosaic pattern of burned and unburned vegetation. Grizzly bears will benefit from increased diversity in the landscape and increased abundance of grizzly bear foods over time. Fires that occurred in lower elevation forested areas with greater fuel loads generally burned hotter and resulted in larger patches of stand replacing fires. Many of these fires occurred adjacent to valley bottoms with human interface areas.