Review by Booklist Review
Science journalist O'Connor (Wayfinding: The Science and Mystery of How Humans Navigate the World, 2019) investigates the relationship between humans and fire through the ages. She begins with an illuminating focus on anthropogenic ecosystems, which are landscapes "maintained by Indigenous people." Controlled burning, a skill practiced by Indigenous people and farmers alike, helps to manage "fire behavior," beneficially fertilizes the soil, and reduces the frequency of wildfires. In contrast, fire suppression campaigns that began in earnest in the 1940s often framed proactive land management techniques, like controlled burning, as arson and consequently severed "the connection between people and land." O'Connor moves on to discuss conditions that lead to wildfires and reasons behind the extreme conditions that wildland firefighters must endure today. Hotshots and smokejumpers, who are sponsored by the U.S. Forest Service and other organizations, withstand some of the most dangerous conditions known to humankind. Meeting with many of them, O'Connor reviews the devastating toll firefighting takes and the outlook going forward amid the growing number of acres decimated by wildfires each year.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This persuasive report from journalist O'Connor (Wayfinding) explores the ecological benefits of controlled burns and details the work of wildland firefighters. Fires have been vital to western American ecosystems for millennia, O'Connor writes, explaining that on the prairie, "combustion speeds up the decomposition of organic matter" and produces "prairyerth," a "fertile humus" that encourages the growth of more grass. The author traces the history of managed wildfires in the U.S., noting that Native Americans "imitated natural fire regimes," clearing forests of underbrush so completely that "a horse could be ridden at full speed without risk of running into a tree." Some European settlers imitated the Native Americans' yearly burns, but others left flora to grow untended, and in the early 20th century, such figures as conservationist John Muir promoted fire suppression as the preferred strategy for managing federal lands despite fire's long-standing ecological importance. Weaved into the history is O'Connor's colorful recollection of training to become a wildland firefighter and combatting uncontrolled burns in Northern California: "The heat permeated the soles of our boots--eventually, we were dancing to relieve the discomfort," she writes, explaining how her team dowsed soil with water to put out underground fires tearing through root systems. Filled with tantalizing natural history and immersive reporting, this nuanced take on fire's danger and environmental necessity enlightens. (Oct.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A confrontation of modern-day views on fire suppression and "the myth of wilderness." As apocalyptic megafires blaze uncontrollably throughout North America, journalist O'Connor, author of Resurrection Science and Wayfinding, takes readers on an all-encompassing journey through a variety of perspectives regarding our relationship to fire. The author interweaves her wildland fire experience with the complex, often fraught history of fire and how we have slowly erased the culture of prescribed fire, or "good fire," in the nation's ecosystems. For thousands of years, Indigenous people maintained a symbiotic relationship with the land, and their system involved prescribed fire interventions. These routine fires helped to clear debris and competing vegetation that covered the forest floor. Eventually, arriving colonizers made these fires illegal, and fire suppression gained favor over the following centuries. O'Connor shines a light on the individuals and groups working to reintroduce good fire back into our culture and policy. "Suppression has created a fire deficit and a need to reduce the fuels that cause high-severity wildfires," she writes. "In California alone, an estimated twenty million acres--an area the size of Maryland, Massachusetts, and New Jersey combined--would need to burn to eliminate the so-called fire deficit created by a century of suppression. Federal agencies acknowledge the problem, but bureaucratic risk aversion and budget constraints, among other things, have stalled the adoption of new approaches, leaving America both burning and fire starved." Along with diverse crews of wildland firefighters, Indigenous leaders, prescribed fire experts, scientists, and ecologists, O'Connor engagingly chronicles her adventures in the nation's lush forest landscapes. She explores not only the unexplained nature of the megafires, but the mental and physical toll these often record-breaking fires have on the firefighters trying to contain them. An intricate examination of the relationship humans once shared with fire in the past and what it can become in the future. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
