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Fig. 15.14. extent and severity of the
1988 fires in Yellowstone national Park.
Burn severity was calculated using
data from pre- and post-fire Landsat
thermal Mapper images and ground
observations. especially striking is the
heterogeneity of burn severity. Similar
heterogeneity probably characterizes all
large forest fires. cartography by Brian
J. Harvey. Reprinted with permission
from Romme et al. (2011, fig. 1) and
Springer Science and Business Media.
national forests and private lands, destroying some tim-
ber resources and threatening human life and property.
even at 2.2 million acres, YnP was not large enough
to contain a natural fire regime. Moreover, the north
Fork Fire, one of the largest individual fires of 1988, was
ignited by humans outside YnP and spread eastward
Just as with elk management, the 1988 fires focused
attention on the question of whether natural regula-
tion can really be an effective management approach,
or whether a more active program is called for, even in
the largest parks and wilderness areas. For some observ-
ers, the need for manager-ignited prescribed fires was
eminently clear. noting that gateway communities and
visitor centers were threatened because adjacent forests
were too close and too flammable, they argued that
manager-ignited fires, during moderate weather con-
ditions and especially near human habitations, could
have minimized the anxiety of 1988. Analyses by For-
est Service ecologist James Brown substantiated this
claim, suggesting that the cost of fuel reduction near
developments would have been reasonable compared
the same analysis led to the conclusion that the scale
of the 1988 fires would not have been reduced signifi-
cantly had there been a program of prescribed burns in
YnP. Human-caused prescribed fires would have been
set only under moderate fire-weather conditions, with
the result that only small areas would have burned. the
resources needed to contain such fires if weather condi-
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