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Ignition: Lighting Fires in a Burning World
A work of on-the-ground reporting into the science of, and cultural ideas around, wildfires and fire management that challenges the ethos of the conservation movement, offering a hopeful vision of the connection between humans and our environment.
In a riveting investigation of the science and ecology of wildfires, journalist M.R. O'Connor ventures into some of the oldest, most beautiful, and remote forests in North America to explore the powerful and ancient relationship between trees, fires, and humans. Along the way, she describes revelatory research in the fields of paleobotany and climate science to show how the world's forests have been shaped by fire for hundreds of millions of years. She also reports on the compelling archeological evidence emerging from the field of ethnoecology that proves how, until very recently, humans were instigators of forest fires, actively molding and influencing the ecosystems around them by inserting themselves into the loop of a natural biological process to start “good fires.”
As she weaves together first-hand reportage with research and cultural insights, O'Connor also embeds on firelines alongside firefighters and “pyrotechnicians.” These highly trained individuals are resurrecting the practice of prescribed burning in an effort to sustain fire-dependent forest ecologies and prevent the catastrophic wildfires that are increasing in frequency and intensity as a result of global warming. Hailing from diverse backgrounds including state and federal agencies, scientific laboratories, and private lands and tribal nations, these fire starters are undertaking a radical and often controversial effort to promote, protect, and expand the responsible use of fire to restore ecological health to landscapes. At the heart of Ignition is a discussion about risk and how our relationship to it as a society will determine our potential to survive the onslaught of climate change.
In a riveting investigation of the science and ecology of wildfires, journalist M.R. O'Connor ventures into some of the oldest, most beautiful, and remote forests in North America to explore the powerful and ancient relationship between trees, fires, and humans. Along the way, she describes revelatory research in the fields of paleobotany and climate science to show how the world's forests have been shaped by fire for hundreds of millions of years. She also reports on the compelling archeological evidence emerging from the field of ethnoecology that proves how, until very recently, humans were instigators of forest fires, actively molding and influencing the ecosystems around them by inserting themselves into the loop of a natural biological process to start “good fires.”
As she weaves together first-hand reportage with research and cultural insights, O'Connor also embeds on firelines alongside firefighters and “pyrotechnicians.” These highly trained individuals are resurrecting the practice of prescribed burning in an effort to sustain fire-dependent forest ecologies and prevent the catastrophic wildfires that are increasing in frequency and intensity as a result of global warming. Hailing from diverse backgrounds including state and federal agencies, scientific laboratories, and private lands and tribal nations, these fire starters are undertaking a radical and often controversial effort to promote, protect, and expand the responsible use of fire to restore ecological health to landscapes. At the heart of Ignition is a discussion about risk and how our relationship to it as a society will determine our potential to survive the onslaught of climate change.
384 pages, Hardcover
Published October 17, 2023
21 people are currently reading
366 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
August 15, 2023
"Get close enough to a fire - maybe even close enough to smell it burning and feel its heat - and what you will discover is a far more complex and fascinating story. And one that is infinitely more hopeful" - M.R. O'Connor writes in the preface. I might add that it is definitely a story worth reading.
It is such a wise, beautiful, insightful book! I've read a lot of reporting on wildfires, but this is the first to focus on prescribed burns - or "good fire" as it's known among its advocates - and more broadly on fire ecology. The author, a journalist with many years of experience, takes us on a surprising tour of our Pyrocene world, during which she evolves from a little naive tree-hugger to a volunteer firefighter and... a chainsaw operator.
She discovers that, as one scientist writes, "the very idea that 'we shouldn't manage anything because the forest takes care of itself' is a completely racist and very, you know, colonial viewpoint that ignores thousands of years of extensive indigenous landscape management in California and the West' ". And in another paragraph she notes: "It seemed to me that the fight over forest management had become an emotional lightning rod exactly because it struck at the heart of a cherished American ideal: untouched wilderness. Challenging this myth by pointing to the historical and ecological evidence of human management, or suggesting that 'wilderness' was a culturally specific idea born in an era of violent Indigenous erasure, elicited intense resentment."
The wildfire is a starting point for a more general discussion about human attitudes - and obligations - towards nature, and a clash between proponents of active and passive conservation. I agree with her that leaving nature to 'take care of itself' can be a lazy and unimaginative approach, that we have already influenced the world around us too much and should now take responsibility for it and act. And we ought to look to the Indigenous people for guidance on how to do this, as many other thinkers have pointed out, such as the late Barry Lopez in his great Horizon.
Sharing her fascination with fire, I felt somehow reassured that it was not so weird - after all, "a firefighter is a pyromaniac with his emotions under control". She writes so beautifully about her chosen element: "I could never get over how odd it was to be just steps away from flames that could kill you, to see the border between life and death physically manifest in front of my eyes. Standing at the edge of a fire was like standing on the edge of a waterfall: you couldn't help but contemplate what it would be like to jump”.
This book is a superb combination of emotional, boots-on-the-ground reporting (you will almost feel the smoke in your throat and the heat on your face), nature and popular science writing, and testimonials from people who have been touched by the fire. Even if you are not an armchair pyromaniac, I think you will fall in love with this masterfully written story.
Many thanks to the publisher, Public Affairs, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.
It is such a wise, beautiful, insightful book! I've read a lot of reporting on wildfires, but this is the first to focus on prescribed burns - or "good fire" as it's known among its advocates - and more broadly on fire ecology. The author, a journalist with many years of experience, takes us on a surprising tour of our Pyrocene world, during which she evolves from a little naive tree-hugger to a volunteer firefighter and... a chainsaw operator.
She discovers that, as one scientist writes, "the very idea that 'we shouldn't manage anything because the forest takes care of itself' is a completely racist and very, you know, colonial viewpoint that ignores thousands of years of extensive indigenous landscape management in California and the West' ". And in another paragraph she notes: "It seemed to me that the fight over forest management had become an emotional lightning rod exactly because it struck at the heart of a cherished American ideal: untouched wilderness. Challenging this myth by pointing to the historical and ecological evidence of human management, or suggesting that 'wilderness' was a culturally specific idea born in an era of violent Indigenous erasure, elicited intense resentment."
The wildfire is a starting point for a more general discussion about human attitudes - and obligations - towards nature, and a clash between proponents of active and passive conservation. I agree with her that leaving nature to 'take care of itself' can be a lazy and unimaginative approach, that we have already influenced the world around us too much and should now take responsibility for it and act. And we ought to look to the Indigenous people for guidance on how to do this, as many other thinkers have pointed out, such as the late Barry Lopez in his great Horizon.
Sharing her fascination with fire, I felt somehow reassured that it was not so weird - after all, "a firefighter is a pyromaniac with his emotions under control". She writes so beautifully about her chosen element: "I could never get over how odd it was to be just steps away from flames that could kill you, to see the border between life and death physically manifest in front of my eyes. Standing at the edge of a fire was like standing on the edge of a waterfall: you couldn't help but contemplate what it would be like to jump”.
This book is a superb combination of emotional, boots-on-the-ground reporting (you will almost feel the smoke in your throat and the heat on your face), nature and popular science writing, and testimonials from people who have been touched by the fire. Even if you are not an armchair pyromaniac, I think you will fall in love with this masterfully written story.
Many thanks to the publisher, Public Affairs, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.
June 28, 2023
An engaging and well-written exploration into all things wildfire with a view to commending the practice of consistent controlled burning.
The author fully immerses herself in the world of wildfires: she remains a writer but very much becomes a wildland firefighter and trained in both fire suppression and controlled fires. Much of the book is her recounting her experiences in both controlled burns and wildfires. She interviews many people who have been very engaged in terms of wildland fire.
She also recounts the history of how the Indigenous people of at least North America consistently burned the land. This is attested both by Indigenous lore and the accounts of early white settlers. She also explores how we have come to our current fire suppression consensus: the "enlightened" belief that we should leave nature alone, the mythic allure of the untouched, undeveloped land, and a lot of bigotry, prejudice, and hostility toward fire and burning. It escaped their minds to imagine how fire might cleanse a land, and how the land we all now live in was not untouched wilderness but had been significantly managed by humans for millennia.
Through her conversations and experiences one can perceive the insanity of our current fire suppression regime, and how often attempts at fire suppression can lead to even greater amounts of territory burned. She explains the developments we've gained in fire science and the dangerous prospect of megafires doing mega-damage. We have created the unholy combination of a warmer planet while allowing excessive amount of flammable material to spread throughout the forests of America. It will eventually end in it all being burned; the only question is whether it will be burned with "good fire" that cleanses and renews or "bad fire" which scorches.
The time is long past to again appreciate Indigenous knowledge and to restore controlled burning throughout the country on a consistent basis, and above all, to recognize fire is "normal," and the complete absence of fire in the land is the artificial and unnatural situation which we have created and which we will not be able to sustain.
Worth reading.
The author fully immerses herself in the world of wildfires: she remains a writer but very much becomes a wildland firefighter and trained in both fire suppression and controlled fires. Much of the book is her recounting her experiences in both controlled burns and wildfires. She interviews many people who have been very engaged in terms of wildland fire.
She also recounts the history of how the Indigenous people of at least North America consistently burned the land. This is attested both by Indigenous lore and the accounts of early white settlers. She also explores how we have come to our current fire suppression consensus: the "enlightened" belief that we should leave nature alone, the mythic allure of the untouched, undeveloped land, and a lot of bigotry, prejudice, and hostility toward fire and burning. It escaped their minds to imagine how fire might cleanse a land, and how the land we all now live in was not untouched wilderness but had been significantly managed by humans for millennia.
Through her conversations and experiences one can perceive the insanity of our current fire suppression regime, and how often attempts at fire suppression can lead to even greater amounts of territory burned. She explains the developments we've gained in fire science and the dangerous prospect of megafires doing mega-damage. We have created the unholy combination of a warmer planet while allowing excessive amount of flammable material to spread throughout the forests of America. It will eventually end in it all being burned; the only question is whether it will be burned with "good fire" that cleanses and renews or "bad fire" which scorches.
The time is long past to again appreciate Indigenous knowledge and to restore controlled burning throughout the country on a consistent basis, and above all, to recognize fire is "normal," and the complete absence of fire in the land is the artificial and unnatural situation which we have created and which we will not be able to sustain.
Worth reading.
September 15, 2023
This was EXTREAMLY entertaining from the very start! The enthusiasm and passion that the author has for their subject is catching indeed.
February 21, 2024
Wow! This is an amazing book. I loved how up close the author gets to the whole wildfire situation. And how quickly she realizes that prescribed burning it an important part of the equation. She dives really deep into it. There was a lot of history, felt like that slowed down the pace, but it was also super interesting. I really enjoyed the first people’s perspective of fire in the landscape. It’s heartbreaking that some tribes had to deal with so much criminalization of their cultural practices.
The tone is a bit rambling. There were stories I wished were longer and some I wished were shorter. But overall it was easy to fall into the author’s account of her few years in wildfire.
Full disclosure, my husband is in her book. That’s how I found out about it. It was fun to read about his work from another perspective!
August 1, 2024
Ignition looks into the burning practices of Native Americans in California and shows they knew what they were doing. The tribes were not really hunter gatherers. They were agroforesters. Their forests were a mosaic of lands in different phases of post-fire biological succession (which mirror those of post-glacial succession). Burns support many species, including humans, and prevent the types of megafires we experience when prescribed burns are not done.
The Sanskrit cognate of the word Ignite is Agni, the God of Fire. The first words of India's most holy scripture, the Rig Veda begin like this: Agnim ile, "I adore Agni."
Why did primitive peoples adore wildfires whereas "civilized" people living in fixed locations despise them?
Because fire is an essential phase in the cyclic metabolism of natural ecosystems, especially in temperate zones.
As a kid, I worked on hot-shot, trail, and surveying crews for the US Forest Service. That kind of work involves becoming intimate with one of the most powerful forces on the planet: forest fires. For a long time, Smokey considered wildfires to be detrimental, but slowly, with knowledge of fire ecology, fire was recognized as a metabolic agent that burns through healthy forests in the natural course of events. After all, in Pre-Colombian times, fire burned through almost every inch of the United States periodically and is as much a part of healthy ecosystems as is water and soil and plant and animal life and thunderstorm.
In 1977 I wrote a book that brought out native knowledge of fire ecology. The firs part of my book, before being published in India, was my master's thesis at the University of California Santa Barbara in Religious Studies. On my committee chair were the great Raimundo Panikkar, with the equally remarkable Nandini Iyer and Gerald Larson filling in the other two seats.
While studying the Vedas under these able guides, because of my background in the U.S. Forest Service, I began to recognize that the Vedic tribes, as well as the Proto-Indo-European tribes from which they had anciently branched off like tines in a stag's antlers. were nomadic and chanted their own knowledge of fire ecology in the hymns of the Rig Veda. The first hymn, for instance, begins, "I adore Agni," Agni (a cognate with English "ignite") being the God of Fire: the metabolic element in the entire universe.
Some Vedic verses to the Fire God, Agni:
Thou art born from the forests and born from the plants of the earth. Pure art thou in thy birth, O Master of man and his race.
Delightful is his growth as if one’s own increase, rapturous is his vision as he gallops burning on his way. He darts about his tongue mid the growths of the forest and tosses his mane like a chariot courser.
Like one who thirsts he lifts his light on the forests; his roar is like the cry of waters on their path, he neighs like a chariot war-horse. Black is his trail, burning his heat; he is full of rapture and awakes to knowledge: he is like Father Heaven smiling with his starry spaces.
The cry of him is like the voice of ordaining Heaven; he is the shining Bull that bellows aloud in the growths of the forest. He goes with his light and his race and his running and fills Earth and Heaven with his riches; they are like wives happy in their spouse.
A splendour in the forest, most brilliant-forceful is the speed of his journeying; he is like a whip on the path and ever he grows and blazes. He is like a smelter who does hurt to none; he is the Immortal who wakes of himself to knowledge: he cannot be turned from his way mid the growths of the earth.
The Mothers who dwell in one abode, desiring came to him who desired them and gave him pleasure as to their eternal spouse: the sisters took joy in him as the Ray-Cows in the Dawn when she comes dusky, flushing red, then shining out in rich hues.
The Vedic Seers knew that all the riches of post-fire succession provided blessings and wealth for these nomadic peoples.
The Sanskrit cognate of the word Ignite is Agni, the God of Fire. The first words of India's most holy scripture, the Rig Veda begin like this: Agnim ile, "I adore Agni."
Why did primitive peoples adore wildfires whereas "civilized" people living in fixed locations despise them?
Because fire is an essential phase in the cyclic metabolism of natural ecosystems, especially in temperate zones.
As a kid, I worked on hot-shot, trail, and surveying crews for the US Forest Service. That kind of work involves becoming intimate with one of the most powerful forces on the planet: forest fires. For a long time, Smokey considered wildfires to be detrimental, but slowly, with knowledge of fire ecology, fire was recognized as a metabolic agent that burns through healthy forests in the natural course of events. After all, in Pre-Colombian times, fire burned through almost every inch of the United States periodically and is as much a part of healthy ecosystems as is water and soil and plant and animal life and thunderstorm.
In 1977 I wrote a book that brought out native knowledge of fire ecology. The firs part of my book, before being published in India, was my master's thesis at the University of California Santa Barbara in Religious Studies. On my committee chair were the great Raimundo Panikkar, with the equally remarkable Nandini Iyer and Gerald Larson filling in the other two seats.
While studying the Vedas under these able guides, because of my background in the U.S. Forest Service, I began to recognize that the Vedic tribes, as well as the Proto-Indo-European tribes from which they had anciently branched off like tines in a stag's antlers. were nomadic and chanted their own knowledge of fire ecology in the hymns of the Rig Veda. The first hymn, for instance, begins, "I adore Agni," Agni (a cognate with English "ignite") being the God of Fire: the metabolic element in the entire universe.
Some Vedic verses to the Fire God, Agni:
Thou art born from the forests and born from the plants of the earth. Pure art thou in thy birth, O Master of man and his race.
Delightful is his growth as if one’s own increase, rapturous is his vision as he gallops burning on his way. He darts about his tongue mid the growths of the forest and tosses his mane like a chariot courser.
Like one who thirsts he lifts his light on the forests; his roar is like the cry of waters on their path, he neighs like a chariot war-horse. Black is his trail, burning his heat; he is full of rapture and awakes to knowledge: he is like Father Heaven smiling with his starry spaces.
The cry of him is like the voice of ordaining Heaven; he is the shining Bull that bellows aloud in the growths of the forest. He goes with his light and his race and his running and fills Earth and Heaven with his riches; they are like wives happy in their spouse.
A splendour in the forest, most brilliant-forceful is the speed of his journeying; he is like a whip on the path and ever he grows and blazes. He is like a smelter who does hurt to none; he is the Immortal who wakes of himself to knowledge: he cannot be turned from his way mid the growths of the earth.
The Mothers who dwell in one abode, desiring came to him who desired them and gave him pleasure as to their eternal spouse: the sisters took joy in him as the Ray-Cows in the Dawn when she comes dusky, flushing red, then shining out in rich hues.
The Vedic Seers knew that all the riches of post-fire succession provided blessings and wealth for these nomadic peoples.
October 11, 2023
Controversial Yet Mostly Solid - But Needs Better Documentation. I first became interested in fire management over a decade ago, when I read an article on wired.com on July 8, 2012, where it made the case that perhaps our modern American efforts to suppress wildfires... had actually led directly to fires becoming ever bigger and more destructive. Over the following 11 yrs, I would both watch the movie Only The Brave, about the Yarnell Hill fire that claimed so many firefighters' lives less than a year after that Wired article came out (which I just realized when researching for this review) and read the book Granite Mountain/ My Lost Brothers (it has used both titles) by Brendan McDonough that the movie was based on. I had also already seen numerous controlled/ prescribed burns as a native of the Southern US, and distinctly remember several over the years in the woods directly behind Lee County (GA) High School - where country singer Luke Bryan, American Idol Season 11 winner Phillip Phillips, and San Francisco Giants great Buster Posey had all attended.
All of that to say that here, O'Connor spends a year actively working with wildland firefighter crews roaming the western US (well, west of the Mississippi - she starts and ends in Nebraska), learning their ways, their thoughts, their struggles. And creating a compelling voice for her effort in this book. She gets the same certifications they do, goes through the same training and meetings, and does everything she is qualified to do per those trainings, and in turn we as readers get a first hand account of what it is really like on said crews. (Which McDonough's book is also great at - just be prepared for some *very* dusty rooms near the end of that tale.)
Through this memoir portion of the book - interwoven with other interviews and research that I'll get to momentarily - she is particularly strong and vivid. Truly, read the book for these passages if for no other reason, as it really brings home what a difficult, demanding, and yes, frustrating job this can be.
Even the research, both interviews and historical, is truly remarkably well done. It is this section in particular (along with, perhaps, some of the commentary from the fire teams she is on) that will likely prove most controversial, as it really drives home the exact point that at least parts of that 2012 Wired article were making - the "suppression only" firefighting tactics we've used against wildfires primarily over only the last century or so really do seem to be causing more harm than they are doing good. And, as it turns out... pretty well everyone knew this before we started doing it. From millennia before Europeans came to the Americas, Native Americans had already been using fire to shape and control their environment in numerous ways, and had already developed tactics that worked *with* nature for the good of all beings. O'Connor's work here makes a particularly strong case that at minimum, these strategies need to be more actively considered. Indeed, much the same way that Gilbert Saul's 2019 book The Geography Of Risk made such a strong case for re-examining coastal development strategies in the face of hurricane damage.
The one weakness here is a quibble, perhaps, but it is consistent with my other non-fiction reviews (and I did already mention it in the title of this review, above), and that is that at just 14% bibliography, it falls a bit short in my own experience - where 20-30% documentation seems to be more standard. Extraordinary claims - and yes, challenging the prevailing "wisdom" of the last century qualifies as such - require extraordinary evidence, and while O'Connor's case through her narrative is stellar, her documentation is sadly quite lacking.
Still, overall truly a fascinating read that deserves far more attention than it may ultimately wind up getting. Very much recommended.
All of that to say that here, O'Connor spends a year actively working with wildland firefighter crews roaming the western US (well, west of the Mississippi - she starts and ends in Nebraska), learning their ways, their thoughts, their struggles. And creating a compelling voice for her effort in this book. She gets the same certifications they do, goes through the same training and meetings, and does everything she is qualified to do per those trainings, and in turn we as readers get a first hand account of what it is really like on said crews. (Which McDonough's book is also great at - just be prepared for some *very* dusty rooms near the end of that tale.)
Through this memoir portion of the book - interwoven with other interviews and research that I'll get to momentarily - she is particularly strong and vivid. Truly, read the book for these passages if for no other reason, as it really brings home what a difficult, demanding, and yes, frustrating job this can be.
Even the research, both interviews and historical, is truly remarkably well done. It is this section in particular (along with, perhaps, some of the commentary from the fire teams she is on) that will likely prove most controversial, as it really drives home the exact point that at least parts of that 2012 Wired article were making - the "suppression only" firefighting tactics we've used against wildfires primarily over only the last century or so really do seem to be causing more harm than they are doing good. And, as it turns out... pretty well everyone knew this before we started doing it. From millennia before Europeans came to the Americas, Native Americans had already been using fire to shape and control their environment in numerous ways, and had already developed tactics that worked *with* nature for the good of all beings. O'Connor's work here makes a particularly strong case that at minimum, these strategies need to be more actively considered. Indeed, much the same way that Gilbert Saul's 2019 book The Geography Of Risk made such a strong case for re-examining coastal development strategies in the face of hurricane damage.
The one weakness here is a quibble, perhaps, but it is consistent with my other non-fiction reviews (and I did already mention it in the title of this review, above), and that is that at just 14% bibliography, it falls a bit short in my own experience - where 20-30% documentation seems to be more standard. Extraordinary claims - and yes, challenging the prevailing "wisdom" of the last century qualifies as such - require extraordinary evidence, and while O'Connor's case through her narrative is stellar, her documentation is sadly quite lacking.
Still, overall truly a fascinating read that deserves far more attention than it may ultimately wind up getting. Very much recommended.
April 6, 2025
A Wonderful Read and an important book ...
I approached the book with some trepidation that it was pretty long for the topic -- would it be repetitive? The answer was not too long in coming... Parts of it read like a thriller... other parts just inspiring. The author will be attending our online science book club that we volunteers for the Albany Pine Bush Preserve have been running for several years and i will have to miss it as I will be out of the country but I am at least very happy I could read the book. I had read a previous book that chronicled the many burns done in the pre-european era by native americans but I had no idea of how much work has been going on around the country in real time ... of course, not nearly enough, but there is at least some hope if enough people understand that prescribed burning really could be an answer to what otherwise will be even more and even bigger mega-fires -- if that is even conceivable.
I approached the book with some trepidation that it was pretty long for the topic -- would it be repetitive? The answer was not too long in coming... Parts of it read like a thriller... other parts just inspiring. The author will be attending our online science book club that we volunteers for the Albany Pine Bush Preserve have been running for several years and i will have to miss it as I will be out of the country but I am at least very happy I could read the book. I had read a previous book that chronicled the many burns done in the pre-european era by native americans but I had no idea of how much work has been going on around the country in real time ... of course, not nearly enough, but there is at least some hope if enough people understand that prescribed burning really could be an answer to what otherwise will be even more and even bigger mega-fires -- if that is even conceivable.
July 6, 2024
A journalist learns about the importance of fire on the landscape both because the forests and the wildlife need fire and because fire suppression has cause a dangerous build-up of fuel that is causing mega wildfires in the face of climate change
She joins planned burns all over the country to learn about it and get hooked on burning, the culture, the danger, the heavy endless work. Along the way she learn and writes about it, fire, forests, grasslands, history, biology, indigenous history of fire as tool and sacrament.
An important book for the time and a huge part of our man-made climate crisis and its challenges.
She joins planned burns all over the country to learn about it and get hooked on burning, the culture, the danger, the heavy endless work. Along the way she learn and writes about it, fire, forests, grasslands, history, biology, indigenous history of fire as tool and sacrament.
An important book for the time and a huge part of our man-made climate crisis and its challenges.
September 1, 2025
Everyone should read this book, firefighter and non firefighters alike. The author goes on a journey I feel like I've gone on myself. Discovering fire and how it is needed across our world to keep things in balance. The interviews with the wide variety of folks who are on the ground doing prescribed burns and fighting wildfires was so good to read. I'm glad she took the time to engage with no profit and indigenous crews of people, it was good to see their perspective coming from the federal viewpoint myself.
September 23, 2024
Phenomenal book, very well written, honest and detailed. The journalist author is clearly very courageous, inquisitive and respectful. She met and worked with some amazing leaders in the wildfire field including indigenous peoples. I was riveted reading this and wrote down a lot of reference notes to learn more.
December 17, 2024
Really fascinating look into fire ecology, wildland fire fighting, prescribed fire and the people who study/do/practice all of that. Highlights for me were the chapters describing cultural burns in Yurok country in NorCal - the power of fire culturally, ecologically, and what it means to set good fire as part of indigenous cultural practices.
December 21, 2024
A very eye-opening and thought-provoking book about the role of fires in our forests. I learned a great deal about the history of our lands, how native Americans actively used fires to manage the lands, and the history of fire suppression. Highly recommend!
April 25, 2025
Incredibly informative, beautiful, and well crafted. It reads like a narrative even though it is about the world in which we live. Please give this a read if you are curious about human impact, fire, and our relationship with the element over time.
June 4, 2025
Wow. Had no idea that fire was so important or the Smokey Bear was so racist.
Really good but listening to the audiobook had to take a star away from the authors mispronunciations! It’s Awl-bany and Tie-yoga
Really good but listening to the audiobook had to take a star away from the authors mispronunciations! It’s Awl-bany and Tie-yoga
January 17, 2025
The parts where she talks about fire are rad.
August 12, 2025
Very interesting insights into wildland fire fighting and prescribed fires. Well written.
March 19, 2025
So good. The story and history of how we as a society interact with fire in a changing world is shared through multiple angles. Cultural burning, prescribed burning, wildfires, fire fighting and fire management are all covered. 100% would recommend.
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