Greater Yellowstone Post-Fire Resource Assessment Committee, U.S. Burned Area Survey Team, and U.S. Geometronics Service Center. Preliminary survey of burned areas, Yellowstone National Park and adjoining national forests: October 1988 (burned areas as of Sept. 15, 1988). 1988. Map. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/89691739/.
Students will analyze this map to learn about the 1988 Yellowstone fires. From this, students should be able to better comprehend both which areas were burned and the large quantity of land that was destroyed. This resource will be introduced after students have already been introduced to themes of the lesson during their writer’s notebook prompt, encouraging students to think about literal and metaphorical fires. Because of the popularity of the park, it is expected that some students will have visited Yellowstone in person; however, the teacher should make sure to give context and possibly provide images for those that are not familiar with it.
In 1988, a combination of natural fires (lightning strike) and human-caused fires worked together to create arguably the most destructive fire of a national park in US history.
Source: https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/1988-fires.htm
- From this map, what are the most damaged areas?
- What from this map could indicate where the fires started?
- What clues could indicate which fires were started by humans versus lightning?
ELA Standard
9/10 Range of Writing 1: Develop flexibility in writing by routinely engaging in the production of shorter and longer pieces for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences. This could include, among others, summaries, reflections, descriptions, critiques, letters, and poetry, etc.
Social Studies Standard
6-12.USH1.2.1.1. Develop and interpret different kinds of maps, globes, graphs, charts, databases and models.
Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
- Writer’s Notebooks: Students can respond to all or some of the following questions as a way of getting them to think about the ethics of firefighting policies, as well as narrative themes surrounding fire:
- Are fires good or bad for the environment?
- Should we always fight to stop fires? What happens if we do/don’t?
- What could be metaphorical “fires” in a person’s life? Are they always bad?
Students should be given time to share their writing with the class, whether as a whole class or one-on-one sharing.
- Map Analysis: Project the map for the class to see or print it for them to look at individually or in pairs. Have students do the following:
- Circle or list areas of importance such as human settlements and tourist destinations.
- Circle or list where the worst of the fires were.
- Write down a guess of how much land was burned? (Have students guess in terms of acres, noting that an acre is just slightly smaller than an American football field.) The correct answer is about 800,000 acres, roughly 36 percent of the entire park.
- History/Context: Give students a brief history of the 1988 fires. The teacher should ask students what the tradeoffs are between fighting fires, letting them burn, and creating controlled burns. The teacher’s instruction should include the following fire management policies:
- Let-Burn Policy (Resource Here)
- Prescribed Fire (Resource Here)
- General Fire Management (Resource Here)
- Short Essay: Give students the following prompt: How do you fight your personal fires (meaning the things that are difficult in your life)? Do you let them burn to put themselves out, or do you fight to stop them as soon as possible? Can your personal fires be good for you?
- Return to the primary source, and consider comparing burned areas from 1988 to lush forest that has since grown back for a tie-in to the personal fires. Talk about resilience, growth after extreme pressure, or even turning over a new leaf.
Highsmith, Carol M., photographer. Road through the Absaroka Mountains of Park County, Wyoming, east of Yellowstone National Park. United States Wyoming Park County, 2015. -09-12. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2017685771/.