Fire fighters watch as the Storm Creek fire engulfs the forest near Yellowstone's northeast entrance
“We Could Have Stopped This*
Yellowstone Park s worst blazes spark a controversy
F
or the first 100 years after Yellowstone
National Park was created in 1872, its
caretakers diligently protected
its forests
from
fire damage. As
scientists learned
more about the balance of nature in areas
like Yellowstone, they discovered that fire
was sometimes a helpful, even necessary,
ingredient. Thus
in
1972
the
National
Park Service adopted a policy of allowing
spontaneous fires to burn unimpeded un-
less
they
seriously
threatened
lives
or
property.
Natural burning has brooked little op-
position, but then Yellowstone has rarely
I
suffered
serious
fire damage.
Until
this
summer, that is. In the midst of the hottest
and dryest season in the park’s 116-year
history, as many as ten separate fires have
raged over 582,401 acres of Yellowstone’s
2.2 million acres, four adjacent national
forests and Grand Teton National Park.
Ignited by lightning and whipped by high
winds, the flames have threatened some
of the park’s most popular sites, including
Old
Faithful. Last week more than 500
tourists and employees were evacuated
from one of Yellowstone’s main
tourist
villages
after the
so-called North Fork
fire burned within two miles. The swift
fires occasionally raced into areas before
park officials could warn tourists to stay
av\c\. “We
could
have
stopped
this,"
complained one of the 8.000 weary
fire
fighters
battling
the
blazes
last
week.
“They won’t let us."
Park officials maintain that they can
only contain the fires, not extinguish them.
Meanwh
i le. defenders of the natural-burn
policy
trumpet
its
benefits;
the
flames
clear thick stands of timber and prepare
L
Approved For Release 2
the soil for a new generation of flora. For
example, many of the seed cones of the
lodgepole pine, which covers 60% of the
park, only open after being exposed to in-
tense heat. Ecologists expect the fires to
help restore the park’s depleted stands of
aspen trees and increase the wide array of
insects,
birds and mammals
that
have
found Yellowstone’s aging forests increas-
ingly inhospitable. “Tt’s part of living in an
ecosystem that
is basically wild and un-
controllable," says Louisa Willcox of the
Greater
Yellowstone
Coalition,
which
supports the natural-burn policy.
But
critics say
it
is
irresponsible
to
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Northeast
Entrance
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Area of
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TIME Map by Paul i. Pugliese
YELLOWSTONE
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nevJutahI coloT
pretend that Yellowstone and other high-
use wilderness areas can thrive on nature
alone. “Letting nature take its course here
is
not based on
realistic assumptions,”
says Alston Chase, author of Playing God
in Yellowstone. “What starts as a policy of
laissez-faire ends up becoming a policy of
massive
interference.” Chase advocates
setting controlled fires to produce the de-
sired mosaic of vegetation, while creating
breaks that would prevent natural
fires
from spreading out of control, “You don t
prevent
forest
fires,” says Chase. “You
just postpone them by building up fuels.
This summer we’re paying the price for
more than a century of mismanagement."
Chase is concerned that a backlash to
the natural-burn policy may produce the
other extreme; the rapid extinguishing of
all
forest
fires.
Residents,
tourists and
area politicians have already sharply crit-
icized
the Park Service
for waiting
too
long before moving to contain the^ latest
blazes. “I question the wisdom of sticking
to the policy in a year like this, with these
severe drought and weather conditions."
said
Montana
Senator Max
Baucus,
a
Democrat. Wyoming
Senator Malcolm
Wallop, a Republican, agreed, adding his
worry about the impact of the fires on the
local economy. “We’ve had a catastrophe
in our tourist industry," he said.
Yellowstone
officials anticipate con-
gressional oversight hearings, and some
observers predict that the summer of 1988
will be a turning point in the debate over
how
fires should be managed. “This fire
will be an example of what went right and
what went wrong ” says Willcox. But with
many areas still blazing out of control late
last week, such a postmortem won’t take
place until fall at the earliest, after nature
finally snuffs out the last flames with rain
and snow.
-
By Laurence Zuckerman.
Reported by Patrick Dawson/Yeiiowstone
1/03/07^:CIA-RDP96-00789R001 200060002-1