volume 17 • number 2 • 2009 9TH BIENNIAL SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE THE ’88 FIRE S : YELLOW S TONE AND BE Y OND NPS/JEFF HENRY Where Were You? ast summer marked the 20th anniversary of the 1988 fires in Yellowstone and the northern Rocky Mountains. The 1988 fires have been described as being Linstrumental in the public’s understanding of the role of fire in ecosystems, history-making, and career-building. In September 2008, in commemoration of those fires, the National Park Tall Timbers Research Station Service (NPS), the International Association of Wildland Fire is publishing the conference proceedings, which (IAWF), and a consortium of partners hosted The ’88 Fires: is anticipated to be available online by October 2009 at the Yellowstone and Beyond conference, which served as the 9th Tall Timbers, NPS, and IAWF websites: www.talltimbers.org, Biennial Scientific Conference on the Greater Yellowstone www.nps.gov/yell, and www.iawfonline.org. Ecosystem, in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem biennial scientific This issue of Yellowstone Science features articles based on conference series was initiated in 1991 to encourage aware- many of the plenary talks given during the conference. The ness and application of wide-ranging scientific work on the speakers remind us that we are still learning from those fires region’s natural and cultural resources. These conferences, with as we look toward future changes in fire management and cli- the active involvement of professional societies and other insti- mate. For many people who were involved with the fires in tutions, provide a much-needed forum for sharing knowledge some way, there is also a very personal connection, a story or a among hundreds of researchers, park managers, and the gen- memory, that those fires recall. The “I Was There” button pic- eral public. The next conference will take place in fall 2010, tured above was handed out and worn during the conference and themes are currently being discussed. by those whose lives and careers are tied to the fires. We hope you enjoy the issue. FE ATURES 5 Opening Remarks a quarterly devoted to Yellowstone Superintendent Suzanne Lewis’s opening remarks. natural and cultural resources 7 I Was There volume 17 • number 2 • 2009 Bob Barbee, Orville Daniels Tami Blackford Editor 15 Science and the Media Mary Ann Franke The ’88 fires made a lasting change in the way that the media Associate Editor reports on fires. Janine Waller John Varley Emily Yost Graphic Designers Assistant Editors 19 Why Fire History Matters A critical look at the role of past fires and of climate and people Virginia Warner Assistant Editor in shaping fire regimes. Artcraft Printers, Inc. Cathy Whitlock Bozeman, Montana Printer 24 Ecological Effects of the ’88 Fires The 1988 fires affected Yellowstone’s forest communities and aquatic ecosystems in surprising ways. Monica J. Turner 31 Wildland Fire Management Policy Yellowstone Science is published quarterly. Support for Yellowstone Science is provided by Fire has a critical natural role and requires a flexible and the Yellowstone Association, a non-profit responsive policy of management. educational organization dedicated to serving the park and its visitors. For more information Tom Zimmerman about the association, including membership, or to donate to the production of Yellowstone Science, visit www.yellowstoneassociation.org 35 Learning to Live With Fire or write: Yellowstone Association, PO Box 117, Yellowstone National Park, WY 82190. How can we mitigate fire events in terms of the risks to people The opinions expressed in Yellowstone Science are the authors’ and may not reflect either and values we need to protect? National Park Service policy or the views of the George Weldon Yellowstone Center for Resources. Copyright © 2009, the Yellowstone Association for Natural Science, History & Education. For back issues of Yellowstone Science, please see 40 Future Forests, Future Fires www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/yellsciweb.htm. The world around our forests will continue to change in ways that affect the likelihood, size, and severity of future fires. Submissions are welcome from all investigators conducting formal research in the Yellowstone Norm Christensen area. To submit proposals for articles, to subscribe, or to send a letter to the editor, please write to the following address: Editor, Yellowstone Science, PO Box 168, Yellowstone National Park, WY 82190. You may also email: [email protected]. DEPARTMENTS Yellowstone Science is printed on recycled paper 2 News & Notes with a soy-based ink. Second Century Commission meets in Yellowstone • New Ken Burns Documentary • Passing of Richard T. Gale • E.O. Wilson Awards • 2008–09 Elk Count • The Accidental Death of Elk #6 On the cover: Detailed satellite image of the Yellowstone Lake area September 7, 1988. NPS photo. 45 Nature Notes On this page: Smoke from the North Fork Fire, Smoke, and Grizzly Bears: A Yellowstone Fire Lookout fire in Gibbon Canyon. Reminisces About the Fires of 1988 Photo by Jennifer J. Whipple. NEWS & NOTES met at Gettysburg National Military of a radical idea that is as uniquely Commission Charting Vision Park in Pennsylvania in March and at American as baseball: that the most for Future of National Parks Great Smoky Mountains National Park special places in the nation should be The National Parks Second Century in Tennessee in June. At each meeting, preserved, not for royalty or the rich, Commission conducted its third of the commission heard from a range of but for everyone. The series is a history five meetings January 27–29, 2009, at subject matter experts and park manag- of the national parks and National Park Yellowstone National Park. Chaired by ers. They also heard from the general Service (NPS), and is a history of ideas former Senators J. Bennett Johnston, public over the course of their year- and individuals. Jr. (D-LA) and Howard H. Baker, Jr. long effort. In fall 2009, the commis- Filmed over the course of more (R-TN), the commission’s goal is to sion will issue a final report, outlining than six years in some of nature’s most chart a vision for the parks’ second a vision for the role of national parks spectacular locales, the documentary is century of service to the nation. Nearly in society, the role of the National nonetheless a story of people from ev- 30 national leaders and experts with a Park Service as stewards of the national ery conceivable background—rich and broad range of experience participate parks, and an action plan for achieving poor; famous and unknown; soldiers in the bipartisan group, including that vision. and scientists; natives and newcomers; scientists, historians, conservationists, A list of the commission members, idealists, artists, and entrepreneurs; academics, business leaders, policy their biographies, and the agenda for people who were willing to devote experts, and retired National Park the Yellowstone meeting are available at themselves to saving some precious Service executives. The commission is www.VisionfortheParks.org. portion of the land they loved, and in being convened and funded by a grant doing so reminded their fellow citizens from the non-profit National Parks of the full meaning of democracy. It is Conservation Association (NPCA). The a story of struggle and conflict, high NPCA is independent of the National ideals and crass opportunism, stirring Park Service or any other government adventure and enduring inspiration— organizations. set against breathtaking backdrops. “We are very pleased and hon- Burns called it the most transfor- ored to be hosting the commission mative project he has undertaken, in Yellowstone National Park,” said and he considers it his best work. He Superintendent Suzanne Lewis. also expressed the hope that his work “Yellowstone National Park has been might add to the Second Century and remains the inspiration for so Commission’s deliberations by impart- many who are interested in and dedi- ing a clearer view of how to go forward. cated to the preservation of our nation’s Duncan added that, as the filmmakers public lands.” New Ken Burns Documentary for this series, they hoped that people The Second Century Commission The National Parks: America’s would come away from the stories with functions through six committees Best Idea several basic ideas. The first is that the which address the various roles and parks belong to them; the parks are the responsibilities of the National Park The first session of the Second Declaration of Independence writ large Service that extend beyond park Century Commission’s meeting in on the landscape. The second idea, boundaries. Yellowstone featured a preview and inspired by early NPS biologist George The commission held five meet- discussion about Ken Burns’s latest Melendez Wright, is that the parks ings at national parks. They first met documentary, The National Parks: represent a great treasure of diversity. in August 2008 at Santa Monica America’s Best Idea. PBS will show the Third, the parks face challenges and Mountains National Recreation Area in documentary in six parts over 12 hours conundrums, but good people have California, and then in October 2008 beginning September 27, 2009. Co- always come forward to find solu- at Lowell National Historical Park in produced with Burns’s longtime col- tions. Quoting Wright, Duncan said, Massachusetts. After the Yellowstone league, Dayton Duncan, who wrote the “Save what you can and protect what meeting in January, the commission script, The National Parks is the story you save.” 2 Yellowstone Science 17(2) • 2009 NPS/JIM PE founding member of the Association of Pellegrino University Research aco National Park Rangers from 1977 until Professor in Entomology for the his death. He served as president of the Department of Organismic and association from 1988 to 1994. Evolutionary Biology at Harvard In May 1994, President Clinton University. Dr.