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Forest History Society Issues Series

America's Fires: A Historical Context
for Policy and Practice
by Stephen J. Pyne
* 2011 Indie Book Award Finalist

America does not have a fire problem. It has many fire problems. The policy of fire exclusion through most of the 20th century seemed successful at first but eventually lead to larger, more intense, and damaging fires. By the mid-1970s federal agencies pulled back from the fire suppression model and embraced a mix of fire practices, including forms of prescribed burning and let-burn policies.

The 1988 fires in Yellowstone National Park carried fire issues to the public, advertising the ecological significance of free-burning fire and the dilemmas of trying to manage it. In America's Fires, Stephen Pyne, the world's leading fire historian, reviews the historical context of our fire issues and policies. The resulting analysis shows why it is imperative that the nation review its policies toward wildland fires and find ways to live with them more intelligently.

This revised edition was published with support from David L. Luke III, The National Forest Foundation, the U.S. Forest Service, MeadWestvaco Corporation, and the Lynn W. Day Endowment for Forest History Publications.

FHS Issues Series: America's Fires
© 2010 by the
Forest History Society.

94 pp.; 18 photos;
33 maps and figures.

$9.95 plus $4.00 shipping.

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Stephen J. Pyne is a professor of history at Arizona State University and a professional pyromantic. He specializes in environmental history and the history of exploration.

Please also explore these other Issues Series titles:

FHS Issues Series: Forest Sustainability
Forest Sustainability:
    The History, the Challenge,
    the Promise

  by Donald W. Floyd

FHS Issues Series: Canada's Forests
Canada's Forests:
    A History

  by Ken Drushka


 




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Updated: December 5, 2011