Burning questions and false alarms about wildfires at Yellowstone

The wildfires that raged through Yellowstone National Park in the late summer and early fall of 1988 not only captured public attention while they burned, but also sparked a wideranging debate after they were extinguished. In the author's view, during the 1960s, policy shifted from the elimination to the accommodation of fire. Under this policy, new fires may be attacked and extinguished, held to a specified area, or allowed to burn so long as they meet certain criteria. He predicts that Yellowstone's fires of 1988, instead of radically changing policies, probably will boil off the last of the philosophical quibbling about natural fire management. -from Author