Forest Fire Management

Crews contained a fire between the Yellowstone north entrance and the Gardner River, as a human-caused incident affected four acres and stopping traffic from entering the National Park.

The 2019 Yellowstone fire season is underway, as Yellowstone National Park officials have set up an observation of the 7 Mile Hole Fire, located three miles east of Canyon Village.

A year ago, officials with Yellowstone National Park and Custer Gallatin National Forest decided to let the Bacon Rind Fire burn with minimal intervention. Today, that decision is deemed a success.

How resilient are Yellowstone forests when it comes to frequent fires? Kelly April Tyrrell of the University of Wisconsin–Madison provides this look at how researchers are addressing the issue.

While there are few outbreaks of Yellowstone forest fires in 2018, one fire on the western boundary of the Park — the Bacon Rind Fire — continues to expand.

The call to withdraw resources from the Bacon Rind Fire on the western edge of Yellowstone may have been premature, as warm and dry weather leads to its expansion and an upgrade to the Yellowstone fire danger to Very High.

As the Bacon Rind Fire recedes and not viewed as a threat to cause major damage, the Yellowstone fire danger has been upgraded to High, thanks to warm and dry weather.

Though the Yellowstone fire danger is currently pegged at Very High, things are relatively quiet, as cool weather and scattered showers has helped stall the Bacon Rind Fire and preventing little new fire activity in the Park.

The Bacon Rind Fire on Yellowstone National Park’s western boundary has expanded to 1,838 acres — but most of that growth has been to the south and not impacting Park operations.

We have two more Yellowstone fires reported — one already contained, one out — as the Bacon Rind Fire expands to 1,388 acres and causes Park officials to potentially deploy pilot cars due to heavy smoke.