{"id":78,"ordinal":0,"modified":"2026-04-17 19:33:18","content_modified":"2026-04-17 19:33:18","featured":0,"title":"Fire in Intermountain National Parks and Monuments","creator":"Kaylen Wilson, Northern Arizona University","description":"<p>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. </p>","postscript_text":"","tour_img":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/75678ebbab988382ceaac098ab81df69.jpg","items":[{"id":913,"title":"1967 Fire Season, Glacier National Park","latitude":48.58109400000000022146195988170802593231201171875,"longitude":-114.115620000000006939444574527442455291748046875,"thumbnail":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/square_thumbnails/75678ebbab988382ceaac098ab81df69.jpg","fullsize":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/75678ebbab988382ceaac098ab81df69.jpg","subtitle":null,"address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":914,"title":"Waterfalls Canyon Fire, Grand Teton National Park","latitude":43.91806100000000157024260261096060276031494140625,"longitude":-110.7623410000000063746483647264540195465087890625,"thumbnail":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/square_thumbnails/218d40ecfabb4d0268fec6ef7807fcd7.jpg","fullsize":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/218d40ecfabb4d0268fec6ef7807fcd7.jpg","subtitle":null,"address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":915,"title":"La Mesa Fire, Bandelier National Monument","latitude":35.8057840000000027202986530028283596038818359375,"longitude":-106.3161860000000018544596969150006771087646484375,"thumbnail":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/square_thumbnails/c2bb9bc0b3c1876b9c14448a59827b75.jpg","fullsize":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/c2bb9bc0b3c1876b9c14448a59827b75.jpg","subtitle":null,"address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":916,"title":"Ouzel Fire, Rocky Mountain National Park","latitude":40.19923800000000113641362986527383327484130859375,"longitude":-105.632472000000007028575055301189422607421875,"thumbnail":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/square_thumbnails/82b8dbf734d2ed422931bd8585e88351.jpg","fullsize":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/82b8dbf734d2ed422931bd8585e88351.jpg","subtitle":null,"address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":917,"title":"1988 Fire Season, Yellowstone National Park","latitude":44.99272599999999755482349428348243236541748046875,"longitude":-110.020522999999997182385413907468318939208984375,"thumbnail":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/square_thumbnails/cbe39d48527aa1fc2d28fe58044f461b.jpg","fullsize":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/cbe39d48527aa1fc2d28fe58044f461b.jpg","subtitle":null,"address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}}]}