Fires in Yellowstone

Large-scale fires are a frequent and necessary part of the Yellowstone ecosystem. For example, the parks' abundant lodgepole pines need occasional fires to burn off the resin that keeps their pinecones closed. The pinecones only open to seed when fires clear space for young new trees to grow. Triggered mainly by lightning, wildfires commonly raged across the landscape for centuries, including massive conflagrations. However, early park managers aggressively suppressed forest fires in Yellowstone in the name of good stewardship. These well-intention but misguided efforts later gave way to controlled burns from the early 1970s onward. In 1988, an extended drought trigged forest fires that eventually scorched about one-third of the park and 1.2 million acres total, despite a massive firefighting effort. The silver lining came with spectacular wildlife blooms for several years afterwards, and the forests and animal population quickly recovered.