Word: parks
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...first 100 years after Yellowstone National Park was created in 1872, its caretakers diligently protected its forests from fire damage. As scientists learned more about the balance of nature in areas like Yellowstone, they discovered that fire was sometimes a helpful, even necessary, ingredient. Thus in 1972 the National Park Service adopted a policy of allowing spontaneous fires to burn unimpeded unless they seriously threatened lives or property...
Natural burning has brooked little opposition, but then Yellowstone has rarely suffered serious fire damage. Until this summer, that is. In the midst of the hottest and dryest season in the park's 116-year history, as many as ten separate fires have raged over 582,401 acres of Yellowstone's 2.2 million acres, four adjacent national forests and Grand Teton National Park. Ignited by lightning and whipped by high winds, the flames have threatened some of the park's most popular sites, including Old Faithful. Last week more than 500 tourists and employees were evacuated from one of Yellowstone...
...Park officials maintain that they can only contain the fires, not extinguish them. Meanwhile, defenders of the natural-burn policy trumpet its benefits: the flames clear thick stands of timber and prepare the soil for a new generation of flora. For example, many of the seed cones of the lodgepole pine, which covers 60% of the park, only open after being exposed to intense heat. Ecologists expect the fires to help restore the park's depleted stands of aspen trees and increase the wide array of insects, birds and mammals that have found Yellowstone's aging forests increasingly inhospitable...
Chase is concerned that a backlash to the natural-burn policy may produce the other extreme: the rapid extinguishing of all forest fires. Residents, tourists and area politicians have already sharply criticized the Park Service for waiting too long before moving to contain the latest blazes. "I question the wisdom of sticking to the policy in a year like this, with these severe drought and weather conditions," said Montana Senator Max Baucus, a Democrat. Wyoming Senator Malcolm Wallop, a Republican, agreed, adding his worry about the impact of the fires on the local economy. "We've had a catastrophe...
...Dorfman, David Ellis, Kathryn Jackson Fallon, Mary McC. Fernandez, Cassie T. Furgurson, John E. Gallagher, Lois Gilman, Edward M. Gomez, Christine Gorman, Tam Martinides Gray, Rodman Griffin, Janice M. Horowitz, Jeanette Isaac, Carol A. Johmann, Sinting Lai, Daniel S. Levy, JoAnn Lum, Emily Mitchell, Lawrence Mondi, Christine Morgan, Jeannie Park, Michael Quinn, Theodore P. Roth, Megan Rutherford, Andrea Sachs, David Seideman, David E. Thigpen, Leslie Whitaker, Linda Williams, Linda Young...