Fire in Intermountain National Parks and Monuments
In 1963, the Advisory Board on Wildlife Management, chaired by A. Starker Leopold, published the Leopold report. It argued that controlling natural fires could be an effective forest management resource for the United States National Park Service (NPS) because flames clear overgrown forests that fuel severe blazes. In response, park managers began to revise their management plans, allowing national parks to burn for the first time. This practice quickly became known as the “let-burn” policy. In 1977, a policy known as NPS-18 created specific procedures for let-burn fire management in 1977, but these guidelines remained difficult to implement in parks. Communities located near parks also found the let-burn strategy controversial because blazes posed a risk to them and smoke polluted them. These debates came to a head in 1988. In 1991, NPS approved a new management plan that limited the conditions in which fires could burn, placing strict limits on the let-burn policy.
1967 Fire Season, Glacier National Park
Glacier National Park burned more frequently throughout its history than almost any other national park in the United States. Starting in 1910, the National Park Service persistently extinguished all wildfires that occurred within parks, but Glacier’s severe fire season in 1967 helped to end this suppression policy.
View Story Show on Map
Waterfalls Canyon Fire, Grand Teton National Park
The 1974 Waterfalls Canyon Fire started in a designated let-burn area near Jackson Lake in Grand Teton National Park, so the National Park Service allowed it to burn. Smoke from the blaze impacted tourists and local communities, prompting public debates about the Park Service policy that allowed natural fires to burn.
View Story Show on Map
La Mesa Fire, Bandelier National Monument
In national parks and monuments, flames pose a significant threat to archaeological resources. During the 1977 La Mesa Fire, Bandelier National Monument became the first known park to conduct archaeological surveys on fire lines.
View Story Show on Map
Ouzel Fire, Rocky Mountain National Park
In 1978, the Ouzel Fire tested Rocky Mountain National Park’s let-burn fire management policies. After park officials allowed it to burn, it escaped park boundaries and threatened the nearby community of Allenspark, Colorado, prompting backlash from residents.
View Story Show on Map
1988 Fire Season, Yellowstone National Park
Starting in the 1970s, Yellowstone National Park experimented with a policy that allowed natural fires to burn within park boundaries. In 1988, a series of highly destructive wildfires put this policy to the test, leading to a comprehensive review of the National Park Service’s fire management procedures.
View Story Show on Map