Book Review originally published in Montana the Magazine of Western History

After the Fires: The Ecology of Change in Yellowstone National Park. Linda L. Wallace, Editor (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2004).
Illustrations, maps, tables, bibliography, index. vii-x + 390 pp. $64.77 cloth.

The 1988 Yellowstone fires were a seminal event in the history and ecology of Yellowstone National Park and the American West. Called the nation’s first “prime time” forest fires because of their dramatic depiction on network television (p. ix), they changed the way America looked at forest fires. At least 53 fires, most caused by lightning, burned across more than one-third of Yellowstone’s 2.2 million acres. Now sixteen years later, 27 scientists and ecologists are reporting on what we have learned ecologically from those fires. After the Fires, says its editor, is an attempt to remedy the problem “that ecologists have not always communicated results of such studies effectively to natural resource managers” (p. 362).

Most of the book is not for general readers. It is hard science that presents and explains the methodology, discussions, and conclusions of the thirteen included studies. Most readers will probably be satisfied to peruse only the first and last chapters, those dealing with the history and chronology of the fires and the summary of what we have learned from them.

According to this book, almost all of the ecological conclusions that scientists have reached postulate that the fires were not negative but rather were positive for regeneration of the diversity of the landscape (p. 368). Using the geomorphology of debris flows to date fires, two researchers now say fires of this scale have occurred relatively often in the past and will likely recur in the future—on the order of 5-17 times every 1000 years, depending on climate. Seven studies demonstrated that the park’s recovery to prefire conditions is occurring relatively rapidly, “surprising for most people given that the visual effects of the fire are still quite dramatic” (p. 365). The “leaf-area” of the park’s lodgepole pine forests recovered to pre-fire levels by 1997 because of regrowth of herbaceous plants that retain nutrients and water and because of improved nutrient retention in soil shielded by fallen woody debris. Recently burned sites appeared to be comparatively resistant to invasion by exotic plants (p. 369). Variation in stream flows was caused more by annual climate than by fire. Effects of fires on fish populations were temporary or indiscernible. Animal researchers have stated that the fires jeopardized no animal species, although the results for moose are not yet complete. And “immediately following the fires, overall grass and meadow production was stimulated and remained higher than prefire levels for at least five years” (p. 367).

The editor concludes that “all of these studies support the assertion that sustainable management of preserves such as Yellowstone depends on our ability to accommodate natural disturbances [like fire] and the processes of change that derive from it.” She says the studies show that “wholesale, large-scale responses [by humans] may end up being out of proportion to the responses of the ecosystem” (p. 369). Most important for managers, the editor concludes that seed planting by humans, restocking of fish, and artificial feeding of animals may actually aid other problems (such as alien species invasions and diseases) and may actually slow ecosystem recovery following large fires.

After the Fires represents the recordation of important new science by experts and their recommendations to land managers for the future.

Lee Whittlesey
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming