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Show 71 they make up a f i r e plan zone by zone: vihether a blaze will be suppressed if it s t a r t s , or whether i t will be allowed to burn depending on weather conditions. Firebase supplied valuable data for the framing of these fire management plans. Research results from the Northern Forest Fire Laboratory in Missoiila viere sent on request, along viith existing fire management plans written for other parks or forests. If a plan had been prepared for one zone viith a slope heavily forested viith lodgepole pine, it could be used as a reference for an identical zone in another park. This saved the cost of duplicating research. Fire plans are flexible enough to be altered for changing conditions at the time of the blaze. On June 29, 1976, lightning struck a 50-foot spruce tree in Yellowstone National Park; fuels on the ground around it immediately started to burn. The f i r e began halfway up a slope covered with spruce and lodgepole - since heat travels upward, fires on h i l ls spread faster than f i r e s on f l a t land. Because viinds viere l i g h t , the plan indicated that the fire should be allowed to burn, it vias viatched closely, though. Spreading slowly, the f i r e had burned four acres by the f i r s t of July. Elk graxing in a meadovi belovi seemed undisturbed by i t , but park visitors on a road overlooking the slope stopped their cars to ask rangers what the smoke vias. Then, on July second, viinds became stronger and the fire flared, leaping from treetop to treetop over t h i r t y acres. The elk moved away to safer ground, and t r a f f i c snarled as v i s i t o r s jumped out of their |
