When Forests Burn: The Story of Wildfire in America

by Albert Marrin

A fascinating look at the most destructive wildfires in American history, the impact of climate change, and what we're doing right and wrong to manage forest fire, from a National Book Award finalist. Perfect for young fans of disaster stories and national history.

Wildfires have been part of the American landscape for thousands of years. Forests need fire--it's as necessary to their well-being as soil and sunlight. But some fires burn out of control, destroying everything and everyone in their path.

In this book, you'll find out

Chock full of dramatic stories, fascinating facts, and compelling photos, When Forests Burn teaches us about the past--and shows a better way forward in the future.

Genres: Nonfiction, Nature, Environment, Climate Change, Juvenile, Middle Grade

256 pages, Hardcover

Published March 19, 2024

About the author

Albert Marrin is a historian and the author of more than twenty nonfiction books for young people. He has won various awards for his writing, including the 2005 James Madison Book Award and the 2008 National Endowment for Humanities Medal. In 2011, his book Flesh and Blood So Cheap was a National Book Award Finalist. Marrin is the Chairman of the History Department at New York's Yeshiva University.

Reviews

[Laura Gardner · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Forests Burn is an incredible nonfiction book that explores the history of wildfire in America. Wildfire is presented as inextricably linked to climate history, the history of life (plant, animal, and human) in America, and ecosystem health. Fire has important purposes in the natural world including warding off infection, removing aged/unhealthy trees, enriching the soil, and allowing sunlight to hit the forest floor. Native Americans understood this well and used fire to fertilize plants, to surround and hunt animals, and for insect management. Unfortunately, white settlers and their belief in domination and “progress” decided all forest fires were bad and ignored Native wisdom. What followed was horrific fires such as the Peshtigo, Wisconsin fire (even more deadly than Chicago), which is presented in horrifying, gruesome first person testimony. Marrin goes on to herald modern wildland firefighters, but also shares the mistakes and lessons not learned by modern conservationists. The final chapter, “Bigger, Hotter, Faster” presents the ways that climate change is amplifying forest fires along with suggestions for what to do if you live in a fire zone.
Comprehensive and compelling, When Forests Burn is a well-researched nonfiction book that deserves a place in every middle and high school library.
Includes extensive notes, a source list, and a large index. Occasional black and white photographs provide context.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

You might think a book about wildfire would start with flames, and it does, but before the story gets going our conversational narrator gifts readers vast swaths of background knowledge essential to understanding how, despite superior tools and more resources, today wildfires are destroying more American acres, endangering more lives and costing ever increasing billions. Well-researched chapters establish the use of fire as a land management tool by Native Americans, the despoiling of the natural environment that led to the conservation movement and thus the disastrous modern suppression of fire and enshrinement of nature as something untouched by humans. A chapter specific to the Golden State sharpens the focus on human responsibility for a triple threat of climate change, unnatural forests full of a hundred years of tinder, and human encroachment into fire-prone forests, all of which have led to our recent disastrous fires. Dramatic chapters filled with horrific accounts of massive fires and heroic efforts to save lives enliven the narrative. A failure to mention Herbert L. Stoddard, the father of science-based American fire ecology feels like an oversite and the swapping of turpentine in place of kerosene as the fuel that saved the whales is not born out by the source sited. Budding environmentalists, report writers and concerned smoke-breathers will find a wealth of valuable information. Backmatter includes extensive source notes, bibliography, picture credits and index.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was absolutely fascinating. Covers an extensive swath of wildfires in America, and the mismanagement of natural resources that have led to many of those wildfires. Offering an impressive amount of background information on different subjects, as well as visceral depictions of catastrophic fires. This is an informational book for kids who love disasters and can't turn away, but also want to know how to prevent them. A call to action both timely and poignant.

[Dexter · Rating 2 out of 5]

It should have been titled, “Some interesting facts related to and parallel to fire that the author found interesting.” I give it a second star as there are interesting fire facts and events, but overall is poorly put together. Could have used a good editor.

[Ms. Yingling · Rating 3 out of 5]

Copy provided by the publisher

Focusing on how wild fires have affected the US, Marrin takes a look at what the country looked like before being taken over by Europeans. Forests and forest products were crucial to indigenous ways of life, providing not only food, but also tools, and these resources were carefully superintended. Discussing how Native people were able to use controlled burns to manage the environment, we see how these practices helped Europeans be able to set up towns, since they did not have to clear the land as much as history reports. Unfortunately, this settlement brought many diseases to the US, killing many Native people. Europeans were very wary of wild places, preferring open land, so they continued to clear cut areas, not realizing until the 1850s that there was profit to be made from forests. The mid 1800s brough steamboats, railways, and more access to different areas of the North American continent, but also an increase in logging and timber industries. These were not often well managed.

Combined with the increase in towns and settlements, the practice of felling large numbers of trees in unsustainable ways led to some terrible fires. I had not connected the Peshtigo, Wisconsin fires of 1871 with Laura Ingalls Wilder, but she had been born in the area just four years before! I did find it interesting that after people were forced from their homes in the middle of the night in their nightclothes to survive the fire that consumed the town, aid was sent by Frances Fairchild, the wife of the governor, who was away. Even though the great Chicago fire happened around the same time, there were not a lot of advances made in fire fighting, and there were also enormous fires in Hinckley, Minnesota in 1894 and the Big Blowup in Idaho in 1910.

In between the descriptions of the causes and devastations of these fires, we do see some indications that people were trying to rectify these man made problems by working toward conservation. George Perkins Marsh, Gifford Pinchot, Theodore Roosevelt and their work are all discussed, and this book offers a slightly different view of John Muir than I had read before. Even though he did a lot of good with the Sierra Club, he also held highly racist attitudes about both Black and Indigenous people.

Moving on from historic fires, there is a discussion of the evolution of fire management, including the 1944 debut of Smoky the Bear, aimed at trying to avoid fires. Of course, since controlled burns do a lot to control wild fires, this campaign has had mixed results. The final chapter addresses climate change and how modern fire fighting has been improved in many ways.

This is a well researched book with lots of valuable information about many facets of forest fires. I enjoyed that many contributing facets are discussed; from the European disliked of unmaintained nature to sketchy logging practices. Everything from how to girdle trees to make them easier to fell to the invention of wood based paper is covered in order to underline the importance of forests in US society. Marrin, who is 87, does a great job of including information about how some of the actions of the past are problematic by today's standards without delving into them at the expense of the focus of the book.

This is a good nonfiction companion to fictional books like Vrabel's When Giants Burn, Henry's Playing with Fire, or Downing's Controlled Burn, and an excellent addition to nonfiction books about fires like Hopkinson's The Deadlist Fires Then and Now and Cooper's Fighting Fire.

I do wish that the format of this book had allowed the book to be taller than it was wide. There's no particularly compelling reason to bind the pages on the short side, since the text could have been arranged differently, and the pictures are not large enough to need this layout. Binding a book this long on the short side means that the pages are apt to pull apart from the binding more easily. I've had to glue Marrin's similarly bound 2011 Flesh and Blood So Cheap back together on several occasions.

[Mathieu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Marrin starts out with the pre-history of glaciers on North America, and the advancement of forests as the glaciers melted, and moves to the historical interactions of humans with forests and the European cultures arriving in North America. Then the history of fires as used by Native Americans and later the large fires and formation of the Forest Service. Kind of a simple history book, with the focus on forests and fires. He also delved into human-caused species extinction: the passenger pigeon.

While skimming, I noted this apparent discrepancy, as the topic of Native American use of fire for opening the forest is common in current discussions of prescribed fire. Pages 27 to 28 describe how Native Americans opened the forest with fire to the extent that one could see "deer and turkeys a mile away," as quoted for New England. Then page 35 describes the Great Forest as "impenetrable". Page 34 also states that building a frigate required 2000 "mature oak trees, which meant felling a minimum of fifty acres of forest." This is 40 trees per acre, which is quite dense.

But it is a good book, presenting lots of basic but good information. The end chapters include current information about climate change and hard choices.

[The Keepers of the Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marrin, Albert, When Forests Burn pgs. 256. Penguin Random House, 2024.

Many humans don’t realize forests need fire to burn unhealthy trees and clear the forest floor. In fact, until humans started cutting down forests for civilization, fires weren’t controllable. Attempting to educate human on deforestation, interventions, and wildfires, Merrin stresses the importance of learning from past mistakes. Included are diagrams of natural processes, photographs, notes, selected sources, and indexes.
The layout is well done and engaging. The flow of the story is smooth like narrative non-fiction. The information provided is helpful, informative, and includes great resources for further information. Readers interested in historical non-fiction, wildfires, disasters, and environment non-fiction will want to pick this one up. Recommended for most library collections. Gr 5 and up, 4 stars

Please note: This was a review copy given to us by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. No financial compensation was received.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hugh places of North American forest were in danger of massive, uncontrollable firestorms, first by loggers who swept in, ignoring the management practices of Indigenous populations, and then by racist preservationists and conservationists, led by John Muir and Gifford Pinchot, who misguidedly decided that all forest fires were bad. The author does honor present day firefighters work. There is also included topics such as the how the U.S. military studied natural firestorms in order to create artificial ones in enemy cities in World War II to the toxic environmental effects of modern fire-retardant chemicals dropped on forests. The photos in the book show contemporary and historical images of fire and after the fires. Included in this book are notes, selected sources, picture credits and index. It is a fascinating book to read.


Disclaimer: I received an arc of this book from the author/publisher from Netgalley. I wasn’t obligated to write a favorable review. The opinions expressed are strictly my own.

[Maggie Blalock · Rating 4 out of 5]

This informative novel showcases the true issue of wildfires. The author takes the audience through history and science to offer evidence on what wildfires can do to our planet. This book is great for anyone that is interested in learning the true science behind devastating wildfires, but especially for middle school aged students. This is great for parents or educators to show to their students and educate them on wildfires.

[Marilyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was well researched. I would have enjoyed more about “modern” fires, such as The Mann Gulch Fire. I felt there was too much about logging fires of the late 1800s. I would have enjoyed more about “modern” fires such as Mann Gulch or Yarnell Hill fires.

[Bonnie A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative

[Brittany E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Charlotte · Rating 3 out of 5]

the best parts of the book were the actual descriptions of fire; the background sections were fine, but not as interesting to me in particular because of not learning much new...and I took a star off because the Wisconsin glaciation in North America wouldn't actually have knocked over forests, because in front of the advancing glacier forests had already been replaced by tundra. Glaciers can move relatively quickly but not that quickly. Would have liked more on forest fires today too--there was a whole section on this, but could have been even more explored.