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. The Clinton Administration developed a Western Forest Health
Initiative,10 and organized a review of federal fire policy, because of concerns that federal
firefighting resources had been diverted to protecting nearby private residences and communities
at a cost to federal lands and resources.11 In December 1995, the agencies released the new
Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy & Program Review: Final Report, which altered
federal fire policy from priority for private property to equal priority for private property and
federal resources, based on values at risk