The United States Fire Administration has prepared this report for fire service professionals interested in keeping abreast of developments affecting forest and wildland firefighting policies of the federal government and the fire problem in the rapidly growing wildland/urban interface areas This paper looks at two of the major wildfires of 1988 and the policy issues that surrounded them: the Greater Yellowstone Area fires and the “49er” fire that caused more than $20 million in damage in the Gold Rush country of Nevada County, California.