Yellowstone Insider Your Complete Guide to America's First National Park
Another fire is burning in Yellowstone National Park, to the south of Fawn Fire.
According to a Yellowstone press release, a smokejumper aircraft discovered the conflagration while passing over the Park Monday, August 8, in the evening. Crews have called it the Maple Fire. It’s burning in a swath of land that burned in the 1988 fire season—the North Fork fire scar, one mile east of the Gneiss Creek trail, three miles north of the Cougar Creek cabin, six miles of the Park’s west boundary, and eight miles northeast of West Yellowstone, Montana.
According to fire crews, Maple Fire is currently one-quarter acre in size. From a Yellowstone press release:
The superintendent and chief ranger have approved this fire to be managed under a monitoring and point-protection strategy. It will provide fire managers a unique opportunity to study current fire behavior in the 1988 fire scar.
Wednesday morning, August 10, fire monitors will be shuttled into the fire area to collect fuel samples, take weather observations, and re-evaluate the measures needed to be undertaken at the Cougar Creek cabin to ensure its protection should the fire move south towards it.
Long-term monitoring plans include placing a remote camera on Mount Holmes or other favorable location to minimize the need for aircraft.
There are no closures associated with the Maple Fire at this time. The need for any trail, campsite, or area closures will be continually reevaluated based on fire growth and behavior.
Fire managers will monitor the fire and prepare long term management plans that address safety to firefighters and the public, protection of structures, communities, natural and cultural resources.
With Fawn Fire still burning at an estimated 915 acres, Stage 1 fire restrictions are still in effect.
