When Forests Burn: The Story of Wildfires in America

Marrin (A Light in the Darkness) breaks down the history of wildfires and their place in the cycle of nature in this thorough work. Beginning in the Ice Age and traveling forward in time through the birth of natural forests into contemporary America, the author explains that forests need fire, a phenomenon, the creator suggests, that many Americans know very little about. Fire “removes aged and unhealthy trees and clears the forest floor of fallen branches,” Marrin notes in plain text, and goes on to say that it wasn’t until humans began interfering in this natural process by clear cutting areas for farms, lumbering entire forests, and utilizing incorrect forestry practices, that wildfires became uncontrollable. Citing incidents such as the 1871 Peshtigo Fire, the Great Hinckley Fire in 1894, and the Big Blow Up of 1919, which “incinerated more than three million acres of private and national forests,” the creator implies that humankind’s attempts to eliminate forest fires created inevitable disasters that are now “larger, hotter, and costlier that they would have been if allowed to burn according to nature’s timetable,” and posits that without intervention and education of past mistakes, these events will only become more frequent. Diagrams depicting environmental processes such as photosynthesis, archival images, and b&w photographs feature throughout; notes, selected sources, and an index conclude. Ages 10–up. (Mar.) ■