Summer of Fire - Linda Jacobs [161]
Fire is a natural part of the forest ecosystem. Many plant species rely on fire for regeneration. Lodgepole pines (nearly 80% of the park’s forests,) have cones that are sealed by resin until the fire’s heat dries and explodes them, releasing the seeds. Brushy plants such as sage, aspen and willows, along with grasses will burn, but their root systems usually remain, and the years following a fire can be a very productive time. As the natural order proceeded, every few hundred years flames swept over the mountains and valleys. Research in Yellowstone has indicated that large fires occurred during the 1700’s.
Once the park was established in 1872, and more people came to Yellowstone, they brought a belief that fire was destructive. Thus, in the latter part of the nineteenth century began the Smokey Bear trend, with the military custodians of the park fighting wildfires. From the 1940s through the 1960s, some began to recognize fire’s positive role, and experimentation with controlled burns began. In 1972, it was determined that natural fires caused by lightning in the National Park would not be fought.
Though Yellowstone’s forests were “old growth,” up to 300 years, with abundant deadfall from the ravages of the pine bark beetle, the years leading up to 1988 did not foreshadow the magnitude of the event. Since 1972, in sixteen years, 235 fires had burned only about 34,000 acres. The years 1982–1987 were wetter than normal, and in the winter of 1987–1988, there was adequate snowfall. April and May rainfalls were abundant, leading to a feeling that the fire season might be a nonevent.
But as summer began, the park experienced a drought along with high daytime temperatures, low humidity, and strong, gusty winds. These conditions caused fires to grow and burn so actively that it was impossible to contain such conflagrations. In the time from late June through July, the driest in recorded history, over twice the acreage burned as had in the previous sixteen years under the “let-burn” policy.
In late July, the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service formed the Greater Yellowstone Unified Area Command, the special fire organization described in this book. Throughout the summer, it tracked 248 fires in Greater Yellowstone. Within Yellowstone, lightning ignited 51 different fires, while one of the largest and most destructive, the North Fork, was reportedly started by a thrown cigarette. The Unified Area Command, in response to the demand for information, began issuing fire maps and statistics that came out on a daily basis.
The following shows the number of acres consumed in the Greater Yellowstone Area along with key events experienced by the characters in Summer of Fire.
July 15 8,500 acres
July 25 75,000 acres Battle for Grant Village
August 4 150,000 acres
August 20 350,000 acres “Black Saturday”
September 7 1,000,000 acres Siege of Old Faithful
September 9 1,200,000 acres Defense of Mammoth
September 26 1,600,000 acres Final report
On July 25, 500 firefighters defended the Grant Village lodge, restaurant and campground. By August 4, large back-country fires spread in the northwest and northeast quadrants of the park. Fire behavior scientists made a prediction, considered dire at the time, that the 150,000 thousand acres burned might double before season’s end.
But August 20, or “Black Saturday” saw a record burning of another 150,000 acres in a single twenty-four hour period, while firefighters sought shelter and aircraft were grounded. The day hosted a dry front, a wind event that caused the fires to crown and run at unprecedented speeds. The report from fire command at 8:00 a.m. on August 22 revealed that fire trucks and crews were protecting Yellowstone’s northeastern gateway towns of Silver Gate and Cooke City.
In early September, the town of West Yellowstone struggled with the decision whether or not to evacuate. By now, Park Service and Forest Service officials were under attack by angry residents who in some cases believed