Concerns about unnatural fuel loads were raised in the 1990s. Following the 1988 fires in
Yellowstone, Congress established the National Commission on Wildfire Disasters, whose 1994
report described a situation of dangerously high fuel accumulations.8 This report was issued
shortly after a major conference examining the health of forest ecosystems in the intermountain
West.9 The summer of 1994 was another severe fire season, leading to more calls for action to
prevent future severe fire seasons.