Yellowstone Rebounds From Fires Wildlife, Trees, Plants Thriving After Scouring Blazes Of ‘88

The makeup and overall health of Yellowstone National Park forests charred in the devastating fires of 1988 appear to be moving toward a full recovery, ecologists say.

Most burned areas still show the black scars from the fires that burned hundreds of thousands of acres nine years ago, but the diversity of wildlife species and the number of trees and plants have not suffered, researchers said.

In all but one of several plots of burned forest studied by Jay Anderson of Idaho State University, far more lodgepole pine seedlings are growing than are necessary to replace the trees that burned.

At one site along the Madison River, Anderson and his students found that 400 times more seedlings had taken root since the fires than had been growing in the area before.

The ecologists concluded that fire plays an important role in the forests of the Rocky Mountain West, they said during a recent tour of the park organized by the Gallatin Institute and American Wildlands.

Fires can actually create fire-resistant stands of timber, but that trait had been suppressed by the federal government’s policy of strict fire control, said Don Despain, a former Yellowstone ecologist now assigned to the U.S. Geological Survey’s Biological Services Division.

He said fire sweeping through lodgepole forests can clean out woody debris on the forest floor, an action that can help starve future fires and reduce their intensity.

Despain said many types of vegetation in western forests have evolved with fire and are able to return with vigor following a moderate-intensity blaze.

But he said fires of more severe intensity result in lower survival and restoration rates, leaving less room for plant diversity.

Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt earlier this year announced plans to use controlled burns on federal lands in the West to clear out fuel that has accumulated through a century of fire suppression, reducing the chances for severe fires in the future.

Forest Service spokesman Peter Stickney said forests must undergo change to ensure their health, and fire plays an important role.

“The forest is a dynamic place,” he said. “If it’s not changing, something’s wrong.”