Scorched Earth: How the Fires of Yellowstone Changed America

A very interesting history of U.S. Fire Policy that led up to the unforgettable fires in Yellowstone Park in the 1980's.

Rocky Barker uncovers a lot information about US fire policy. When I got this book for X-mas I thought it might be another one of the same old song fire books. Once I started reading it I became "fired up" again about US fire policy. Those that have worked in the wildland fire service should really enjoy reading how people in the Forest Service and conservation movement recognized early in the last century that suppression policy was a mistake that would lead to the problems we are having today. Well written and researched. Any fire managers out there ought to buy a copy for the office.

This is one of the best books available on the history and practice of fire control in the United states. The author's personal experience in Yellowstone Park during the fires of 1988 provides a perfect background for the story of how we got to where we are today. He documents the military beginnings of control efforts that greatly influenced how fire control is done. He also documents the recent history of letting fires burn for management purposes. The important lesson here is that forest fires are unmanageable under the most extreme conditions and little can be done to stop them. Fire management is a complex socio/political problem that suffers from policy based on mythology and poorly informed public opinion. The Yellowstone fires changed the National awareness of wildfire and subsequent efforts to improve performance of the fire services have met with mixed results. Barker's dscussion of events following 1988 provides a widow in to how the fire services have responded to the Public's heightened interest.The paramilitary nature of these services delivers strong, disciplined responses to fire threats but we still seem to suffer from the expectation that extreme fires can be controlled. This is a good potential text for introductory courses in Forestry and Conservation. The book is well written and very informative, I liked it very much.

Rocky Barker's Scorched Earth is clear well written history of wildland fire. The work clearly stands on the shoulders of previous chroniclers of wildland fire, particularly Stephen Pyne, and ties the work of pioneers in fire ecology to today's prescribed fire programs. It does leave the question of how prescribed fire as practiced by government agencies can ever really work to lessen the urban interface danger open. Particularly since very near the end of the book (pp 235) Rocky states that Randal O' Tool found that only 7 million acres in the west have a high to medium likely hood of fires that threaten structures and of those acres only 8% are federal. This well hidden tidbit should be the core of Rocky's next book. Why should the federal government be involved in prescribed fire?

This is a great book that offers insights into the many turning points of U.S. wildland fire history, starting with the first efforts by the U.S. Army to fight fire in Yellowstone. The focus on Yellowstone is deceptive, as much of what Barker says is relevant for the entire western U.S. While Stephen Pyne's books are unparalleled for their in-depth histories of fire, Barker's book is far more readable and really covers the highlights of wildland fire management. A chapter on John Wesley Powell suggests that this history could have been far different if McKinley had not been assassinated, making Roosevelt president and giving Gifford Pinchot the upper hand in fire bureaucracy. Powell's understanding of fire was far better than Pinchot's. In more recent history, Barker's explanations of how the Yellowstone and Storm King fires changed fire management and fire suppression strategies are critical to understanding what is going on today. Barker highlights experts who question the conventional wisdom that "a century of fire suppression has made forests more vulnerable to fires." In fact, the large fires of the last few years are more the result of drought and policy changes that trade off more acres burned for increased firefighter safety. Everyone concerned with federal land management, which more than anything else is about wildfire management, should read this book.