Yellowstone National Park reports first wildfire of 2025

JACKSON (WNE) — Yellowstone National Park has reported its first wildfire of 2025, a tiny blaze that was detected Monday in the northwest part of the park.

The fire, dubbed the “Memorial Day Fire” by park officials, was roughly 0.1 acre when the park announced it Wednesday afternoon. 

It was burning in a mixed conifer forest about 3/4 of a mile southeast of the Bighorn Pass Trailhead, located off Highway 191 between Mammoth Hot Springs and Norris Geyser Basin. Firefighters suppressed the blaze, which is under control. The fire was caused by lightning, park officials said.

The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is fire-adapted, and some native plant species, like lodgepole pine, require fire to reproduce. While lodgepoles die easily in fires, their cones are sealed by a resin and, when fire burns through a lodgepole stand, it melts the resin, allowing the trees to release their seeds and reproduce.

Yellowstone manages lightning-caused fires for multiple objectives, including protecting human safety and buildings, and allowing it to proceed naturally on the landscape. 

In 2010, for example, Yellowstone suppressed the western flank of the Antelope Fire to protect people and roads while allowing its southern and eastern flanks to burn.

As the climate warms, fires in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem are, however, becoming more frequent and larger, according to National Park Service officials and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The Memorial Day Fire marks the beginning of wildland fire season in the region. 

The National Interagency Fire Center, which helps coordinate American wildland firefighting, anticipates “normal significant wildfire potential” in most of the Rocky Mountain region through August.

This story was published on May 30, 2025.