The Yellowstone fires of 1988 together formed the largest wildfire in the recorded history of the U.S.'s Yellowstone National Park. Starting as many smaller individual fires, the flames spread quickly out of control with increasing winds and drought and combined into one large conflagration, which burned for several months. The fires almost destroyed two major visitor destinations and, on September 8, 1988, the entire park was closed to all non-emergency personnel for the first time in its history. Only the arrival of cool and moist weather in the late autumn brought the fires to an end. A...

Lodgepole Pine, Pinus contorta, also known as Shore Pine, is a common tree in western North America. Like all pines, it is evergreen. Subspecies There are three subspecies of Pinus contorta, one of them with two varieties. All the four taxa are sometimes treated at the rank of variety. *Pinus contorta subsp. contorta (Shore Pine) – Pacific Coast, southern Alaska to California **Pinus contorta subsp. contorta var. contorta (Shore Pine; syn. P. contorta var. contorta) – Pacific Coast, Alaska to northwest California **Pinus contorta subsp. contorta var. bolanderi ( Mendocino Shore Pine;...

Fire ecology is concerned with the processes linking the natural incidence of fire in an ecosystem and the ecological effects of this fire. Many ecosystems, particulalarly prairie, savanna, chaparral and conifer forests have evolved with fire as a natural and necessary contributor to habitat vitality and renewal. Many plant species in naturally fire-affected environments require fire to germinate, to establish, or to reproduce, or all three. Fire suppression not only eliminates these species, but also the animals that depend upon them. Finally, fire suppression can lead to the build-up o...