STORMS SNUFF OUT LAST YELLOWSTONE FIRES

Winter storms that have blanketed Yellowstone National Park with as much as 30 inches of snow have snuffed out the last of the fires that raged there this summer, the park announced Friday.

Yellowstone spokeswoman Joan Anzelmo said heavy snow throughout the country's first national park is allowing officials to consider the blazes "officially out."According to Yellowstone reports, the fires affected some 995,000 acres of the 2.2 million-acre park. But only about 20,000 acres suffered "high-intensity heat" fires that scorch the earth so badly it does not renew itself.

Crews have spent weeks replanting seedlings in burned-out areas, taking measures to prevent erosion of hiking trails and doing other rehabilitation work.