Yellowstone: Park for All Ages : Criticizing Burn Policy Ignores Nature as Healer

The wildfires in Yellowstone National Park have been a wonderful thing.

Considering that several hundred thousand acres have been burned, several tens of millions of dollars have been spent on fire-fighting and many a vacation has been ruined, such a statement might sound outrageous. But from the standpoint of Yellowstone’s environment in general and ecosystem in particular, a major conflagration was just what the doctor ordered.

To those unfamiliar with Yellowstone, it probably seems a shame that lovely scenery is being destroyed. But the truth is that Yellowstone is not a grand scenic area of the same magnitude as Yosemite, Glacier, Grand Teton or almost any other of our Western national parks. Basically, there are three reasons why people visit Yellowstone, and scenery is not one of them. The chief attractions are the geysers and other hydrothermal features that are unparalleled in the world, wildlife in profusion and variety, and the mystique associated with the world’s first national park.

There are scenic spots, of course. But most of the park is a forested plateau covered with a dense growth of over-mature but spindly lodgepole pines. As a wildlife habitat, this forest is relatively sterile and seriously undiversified. The plentiful wildlife occurs in spite of the lodgepole pine forest, rather than because of it.

The incineration of a sizable portion of the forest provides an opportunity for nature to diversify. The variety of habitats that will regenerate will be a boon to the wildlife for a long time. The ecosystem will be much healthier for this catharsis. Moreover, the hydrothermal features will not be harmed, and the mystique of the park will only be enhanced by the addition of this dramatic event to its colorful history.

There are short-run negatives, of course. Hosts of smaller creatures have lost their lives and true sterility will prevail in the heavily burned areas for a brief interval. However, healing growth will take place surprisingly soon. Indeed, some of the areas that burned in July and August are already beginning to green up.

We can take comfort in the example of Mt. St. Helens, whose devastatingly explosive eruption of May 18, 1980, was much more cataclysmic to the environment (though covering a smaller area) than Yellowstone’s fires. Yet regeneration was swift. Spiders were spinning webs in the devastated area within a week of the eruption. Ferns, skunk cabbage and even trees were sprouting before the end of the summer. Now, eight years later, mountain goats have returned to the heights and the elk population is back to “normal.” Nature heals.

Unfortunately, the Yellowstone fire situation has become tainted with emotion because of short-sighted media coverage and an unerring instinct to play politics with environmental issues.

The media apparently were totally unaware of the long-standing National Park Service wildfire policy, and only belatedly reported it with any sort of accuracy. The policy is straightforward and philosophically impeccable: In large national parks, any natural (i.e., lightning-caused) fire will be allowed to burn itself out unless it threatens human life or structures; human-caused fires will be suppressed, if possible. As the fires became bigger and more destructive, the media began to interview local people. Most interviews, however, were with bartenders in West Yellowstone or tour operators in Gardiner, rather than with rangers, fire bosses, scientists or the park superintendent. While the observations of a bartender may provide more colorful quotes, their relevance would seem to have severe limitations.

Politicians, led by the two senators from Wyoming, are now looking for scapegoats, and are calling for resignations by various administrators. President Reagan says the Park Service’s burn policy has been overturned for the rest of the 1988 fire season.

A long-range viewpoint clearly is needed. Yellowstone is a park for the ages. Its importance is not circumscribed by a temporary situation; its relevance is not just for this year or this generation. Its value is in its continuing integrity, extending into the misty future.

The “let burn” policy is not the result of bureaucratic lassitude; it is perfectly in keeping with the total management philosophy for large national parks. As far as possible, nature is to be unfettered so that the landscape and ecosystem can be as nearly primeval as possible, both in appearance and process. In other words, whatever nature provides--fire, flood, insect infestation, drought, storm and so on--will be accepted as part of the theme, as long as human life and structures are not imperiled.

It is important for the general public to recognize that the summer of 1988 was a fire season in the middle Rockies that is unparalleled in this century, that our public-land administrators in the Yellowstone area have a wildfire policy that is intrinsically sound and in keeping with the broader land-management policies that make our national park system the finest in the world, and that the Yellowstone ecosystem will only be strengthened by this fiery ordeal.