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Now listen to a part of lecture on the topic you just read about.
现在来听一段关于你刚刚读到的文章的演讲。
Actually fires are natural part of the ecological cycle, and their role is not just destructive but also creative.
事实上，火灾是生态系统的自然组成部分，而且它们的角色不仅仅是破坏性的，也是建设性的。
That's why the "let it burn" policy is fundamentally a good one,
那就是为什么“随它燃烧”政策基本上是好的，
even if it some times causes fires on the scale of the 1988 Yellowstone fire.
尽管有时它会导致像1988年黄石公园大火那样规模的火灾。
Let's look at what happened after the 1988 fires.
我们来看一下1988年火灾之后发生了什么。
First, vegetation. As you might imagine, scorched areas were in time colonized by new plants.
首先，植物。你们可以想到，那些烧焦的地方会及时被新的植物占领。
As a matter of fact, the plant life in Yellowstone became more diverse
事实上，黄石的植物区系变得更加多种多样，
because the fire created an opportunity for certain plants that could not grow otherwise.
因为另一方面火灾为某些不能生长的植物创造了机会。
For example, areas where the trees have been destroyed by the fire could now be taking over by smaller plants that needed open unshaded space to grow.
比如，树木被火灾摧毁的地方现在被更小的植物所占领，这些植物需要开放无荫蔽的空间来生长。
And another example, seeds of certain plants species won't germinate unless they're exposed to very high levels of heat,
另一个例子是，某些植物种类的种子不会发芽，除非它们暴露在非常高的温度里，
so those plants started appearing after the fire as well.
所以，那些植物也会在火灾之后开始出现。
It's a similar story with the animals.
动物的故事是相似的。
Not only did their populations recover, but the fire also created new opportunities.
不仅它们数量会恢复，而且火灾也带来新的机会。
For instance, the small plants that replaced trees after the fire created an ideal habitat for certain small animals like rabbits or hares.
比如，在火灾之后取代了树木的小植物给某些像兔子或者野兔这样的小动物提供了理想的栖息地。
And when the rabbits and hares started thriving, so did some predators that dependent on them for food.
当兔子的数量开始繁荣时，以它们为食的捕食者也一样。
So certain food chains actually became stronger after the fire than they were before.
所以，大火过后某些的食物链会变得比它们之前更加强大。
And last, fires like the 1988 Yellowstone fires would be a problem for tourism if they happened every year. But they don't.
最后，像1988年的黄石大火会成为一个问题，如果它们每年都发生的话。但是，它们没有。
It was a very unusual combination of factors that year.
那一年它是一个非常不寻常的很多因素的组合。
Low rainfall, unusually strong winds, accumulation of dry undergrowth that caused the fire to be so massive.
比如，降水少、罕见的大风，以及干灌木丛的聚集使得了那次大火规模空前。
This combination has not occured since, and Yellowstone has not seen such fires since 1988.
这个组合之后没有发生过，而且黄石公园自1988年开始也没有出现过那样的火灾。
Visitors came back to the park next year and each year after that.
游客们次年以及之后的每一年都回到这个公园。
