It’s been two months and five days since Yellowstone National Park first began introducing seasonal fishing restrictions within its boundaries. Back on July 12th, the park closed all fishing on the Madison River and two of its main tributaries, the Firehole and Gibbon Rivers, due to the extreme heat in the area and subsequent rise in water temperatures.
The heat puts outsized strain on the native cutthroat trout species that make the Madison and its tributaries designated Blue Ribbon fisheries, and the park wanted to preemptively take action to reduce any additional strain on those fish from being caught by the numerous anglers who frequent the area.
Twelve days later, the heat wave prompted park officials to add a portion of the mighty Yellowstone River to those restrictions, while adding partial closures on the likes of the Gardner River, Slough Creek, Lamar River, and Soda Butte Creek for the same effective reason: the heat.
As of the afternoon of September 16th, those closures have been lifted, as have ‘all parkwide fishing restrictions due to warm weather’ per the press release by the National Park Service.
As the summer heat wave threw a wrench into the fishing plans of many park visitors, so, too, did it begin to dry out the entirety of the 2.2 million protected acres. The drought increased rapidly enough that the park instituted VERY HIGH fire danger status and Stage 1 fire restrictions within the park on July 25th, meaning campfires were no longer allowed at any of the backcountry sites within park boundaries.
As of today, September 17th, those Stage 1 fire restrictions have officially been lifted, per the NPS. HIGH fire danger still very much exists within the park, but with rain (and snow) rolling through the northwest Wyoming area this week comes the first wave of season-changing weather that will hopefully reduce the park from its summer tinderbox status.
Nowhere was the need for fire restrictions in northwest Wyoming more evident than at the Fish Creek Fire just outside Dubois, Wyoming. The fire, which has burned over 22,000 acres, sprang up on August 16th just south of US Highway 26/287 on the east side of the Wind River Range in the Teton National Forest just east of Grand Teton National Park. Per InciWeb, the favorable conditions over the last few days have allowed the hotshots on the ground to up containment of the fire to 69%, with more expected given the forecast in the area over the coming days.
Hat-tip to The Hotshot Wake Up on Twitter for providing video evidence of the storm beginning to mercifully drop a ton of moisture on the area.
Up to a half-inch of rain is expected as rain continues through Wednesday, September 18th from Jackson, Wyoming on the southern side of the park through Gardiner, Montana on the park’s north side. Hopefully that provides the kind of moisture needed to get the park out of its current moderate to severe drought.
As always, if you’re going to head into the Yellowstone backcountry, practice Leave No Trace principles and always, always triple-check to make sure any campfire you’ve started is completely put out before you leave it.
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