The Nation : Storms That Killed 6 Spawn Tornadoes

The Bush Administration, pinched between political concerns and scientific conclusions, has scrapped the controversial “let-it-burn” policy in Wyoming’s Yellowstone National Park and at other national parks for the duration of the 1989 fire season. “Word has come from Washington,” said Joan Anzelmo, Yellowstone’s public information chief, “that we are to fight every fire, including those caused by nature. When the first lightning bolt torches the first tree this summer we’ll have a helicopter out there to attack.” The decision to fight all fires should spare the National Park Service from the political heat it felt last fall when the biggest wildfires in 200 years struck Yellowstone and scarred the world’s first national park.