On July 21, 1988, Yellowstone officials abandoned their sixteen-year-old natural fire program and ordered full suppression. It was already too late. Winds, drought, and seventy-eight years of accumulated fuel did what they were always going to do. By October, nearly 800,000 acres had burned, 99 percent of it while 25,000 firefighters were actively trying to stop it.
The fires proved suppression couldn't save the park. The public blamed the policy that had already been abandoned. Politicians called it "cockamamie." Within three years, natural fire programs were rolled back nationwide. The institution reached, again, for the lever that had already failed.