YELLOWSTONE'S CYCLE OF FIRE

Yellowstone National Park suffered devastating fires in 1988, when some 13 million acres blazed in the greatest forest fire in 250 years. Staub parallels and updates two excellent 1990 books (Vogel's The Great Yellowstone Fire and Patent's Yellowstone Fires) that documented the fire's causes, efforts to fight it, and the immediate aftermath. In the earlier titles, scientists speculated on the fire's impact on flora and fauna; data gathered since 1990 supports and strengthens the hypothesis that large-scale fires serve a necessary and useful function in maintaining biodiversity. The author gives the experience a positive spin: ``Thanks to the fires of 1988, Yellowstone has entered a period of birth and regrowth that will continue through the twenty-first century.'' Fine color photos and the text's currency make this Earth Watch Book particularly useful. Glossary; index. (Nonfiction. 9-12)