Yellowstone National Park - Highlights

By Teresa Plowright, About.com Guide

Fire is an integral part of the ecology in Yellowstone: in fact, certain cones of the lodgepole pine (-- the park's dominant tree--) open up only during fires, to spread their seeds.

The enormous fire of 1988 is still remembered: eight fires burned 793,800 acres of the Park. Each year, an average of 22 fires is started in Yellowstone by lightning; and a major fire, as in 1988, has occurred every 300 to 400 years for the past 10,000 years.

- Continue to Park Ranger Programs.