The Bacon Rind Fire, which burned approximately 5,500 acres south of Big Sky, photographed on July 30, 2018. PHOTOS COURTESY OF CUSTER GALLATIN NATIONAL FOREST
Unsuppressed Bacon Rind Fire part
of ‘nature’s schedule’
By Jessianne Castle ENVIRONMENTAL AND OUTDOORS EDITOR
BIG SKY – Last summer, the Patten
family could hear the not-so-distant crackling of a wildfire from their cabin
near their property boundary approximately 25 miles southeast of Big Sky.
Duncan Patten, 84, who shares
ownership of the Black Butte Ranch with his brother and sister, described it as
disconcerting, hearing the fire popping in the evenings and wondering if flames
from the lightning-ignited Bacon Rind Fire were coming down the hill toward the
cabin.
“You do what you can and if nature
really wants to override you it can,” Patten said during a June 9 media tour of
the fire hosted by the Custer Gallatin National Forest.
Neighboring the Lee Metcalf
Wilderness and Yellowstone National Park, the 485-acre ranch is nestled across
the Gallatin River and Highway 191 from Black Butte, with Monument Mountain the
crowning glory to the southwest. Duncan’s father purchased the land in 1955
from the Story family, which homesteaded the property and is known for
patriarch Nelson Story’s role in the founding of Bozeman.
The Bacon Rind Fire seethed
throughout most of the summer and continued into fall when wet snowfall finally
extinguished the flames after burning approximately 5,500
acres. And while Black Butte Ranch was never evacuated during the blaze, a
40-person fire crew came early in the burn to create a fire break and sprinkler
system around the property.
Smoke collects from the Bacon Rind Fire on Aug. 11, 2018 along a ridgetop north of Migration Creek.
Throughout the fire, staff from
CGNF, Yellowstone National Park, Gallatin County Emergency Management and
Montana Department of Transportation worked cooperatively to monitor the fire. They
were prepared to engage in fire suppression tactics if flames had gotten close
enough to areas like Black Butte Ranch but never felt the need to do so.
An unburned meadow at the fire edge near Bacon Rind Trailhead one year after the burn.
The fire burned through an area
that fire ecologists estimate hadn’t burned for roughly 180 years, in part due
to the suppression standard that ruled fire management in the latter half of
the 1900s. “There was quite a bit of a fire deficient,” said CGNF fire
ecologist Todd Erdody, adding that fire promotes a diverse forest, mineral soil
and some plant germination.
“It ended up being a great
opportunity to manage the fire with a lot of ecological benefit in there and
basically help us out for the next 20 to 30 years because we now have a 5,000
acre fire on this piece of land that we can use as a buffer for future fires
down the road,” said Jeff Shanafelt, CGNF west zone fire management officer.
Indian paintbrush emerges from last year’s ash.
With warm weather forecasted in the
coming weeks after extensive moisture in May and June, Park Fire Management
Officer John Cataldo said fire danger is moderate in Yellowstone but warned
that conditions can change rapidly. “It’s typically this time of year when we
can see a rapid increase in the fire danger level,” he said. “We’re on nature’s
schedule.”