![]() ![]() Furthermore, the history of research and accumulated long-term data on various components of GYA terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems will facilitate meaningful pre- and post-fire comparisons. In particular, the scale and heterogeneity of these fires provide unprecedented opportunities to address a variety of landscape-level questions. Several factors make the 1988 fires particularly important for wildland ecological study. Also, the GYA is the site of America's first national park (1872) and its earliest national forest (1891), giving this event special significance from the standpoint of wilderness management. The Yellowstone fires were likewise distinctive for the intensity and scale of public and media attention given them, for the great costs of their attempted suppression, and for the timely test they provided for the management philosophies, policies, and programs of parks and wilderness areas. The fires that burned over the Greater Yellowstone Area (GYA) during the summer of 1988 were remarkable for their intensity and scale - the largest fire complex ever recorded for that area, the biggest in the Northern Rockies during the last half century, and one of a score of large-scale burns that have dominated the fire history of the United States during the past century (Pyne 1982). ![]() Interpreting the Yellowstone Fires of 1988 ![]()
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