The Yellowstone Fires of 1988 by

What happened?

122110_4 — 2025-01-16 05:24:51 UTC

In June 1988 there were 18 fires started from lightning. The forest service let them burn because they thought they would burn out and 11 of them did burn out but due to a very dry July the rest did not burn out and on July 21 they started suppressing them. Eventually they got out of control and fires kept burning until September 11th only being put out by snow.

Impact on people

122110_4 — 2025-01-16 05:47:11 UTC

At the peak of the fire's there were 9,000 firefighters attempting to put out the fires. There were 2 deaths recorded. There was 3.28 million dollars worth of structures lost and 120 million spent fighting the fires. These fires gave a new light on the recovery process of a forest after a fire and how beneficial it can be. That is why they still allow natural fires to burn as long as they are not a threat to human life and aren't a threat to property.

Economic impact

122110_4 — 2025-01-16 05:53:29 UTC

These fires led to 3.28 million dollars worth of destroyed structures.

Also 120 million dollars was spent in the efforts to fight the fire.

Impact on the planet

122110_4 — 2025-01-16 06:09:48 UTC

During these fires there were over 390 documented animal deaths. The fires burnt roughly 800,000 acers of land. The relative water levels decreased for a short amount of time due to the amount of water they used to fight the fires. It is hard to gage how long it took for the forest to recover but a rough estimate is around 15 years to get back to looking close to what it did before the fires.

How did we address this issue

122110_4 — 2025-01-16 16:19:46 UTC

After all the fires were finally out many people wanted a new policy saying every single fire needs to be put out immediately but after researchers went through the burned areas and realized how beneficial it is to let natural wildfires burn. The policy now is natural fires are allowed to burn but must be watched closely but if they pose a threat to human life or structures they will begin suppressing them. The best value system this represents is Ecocentric due to the fact they want the environment to stay as natural as possible with little human interference.

Why is it important

122110_4 — 2025-01-16 16:33:32 UTC

These fires showed how important they are and that how much a forest needs a fire as a fire needs a forest. Yellowstone was having a irregular dry year and was very over due for a fire. That's why this fire got so out of hand they had not had a fire in a long time and was very dry leading to this. That's why controlled burns are necessary to keeping forest longevity. People's views definitely changed from everyone saying fire is bad and has to be stopped to it being a necessary part of a forest ecosystem. I think the

Fun facts

122110_4 — 2025-01-16 17:17:22 UTC

The fires were started from lightning.

There was a day called black Saturday when the fires spread to 480,000 acres.