Fire Management in the American West: Forest Politics and the Rise of Megafires

1. Introduction

ix A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s This book has placed me in serious personal debt. First, I owe a great debt to Dr. Timothy Ingalsbee, who encouraged my interest in fire and whose passion for returning fire to the western woods was and remains relentless. His insights and perspectives on fire ecology and the “sociology of wildland fire” were a great inspiration, and he was extremely generous with his time, expertise, and resources. This may not be the book he initially pointed me toward writing, but he, more than anybody, was the one who set me on the path. I am responsible, of course, for where it has ended up. I am also grateful for Dr. Bill Robbins’s immense assistance at all stages of the project. His help navigating the archives, his suggestions on early drafts, and his path-breaking scholarship on the political economy of the timber industry were invaluable. I would also like to thank John Foster, Val Burris, and Richard York for their valuable advice and suggestions on previous drafts. Thanks also to the Forest History Society in Durham, NC, which provided a travel grant that enabled me to make use of the organization’s wonderful archives. I am similarly gratefultotheUniversityofOregon’sG.BentonJohnsonDissertationFellowship for financial support. Peter and Suzanne Hudson contributed untold hours wading through early drafts and provided editorial suggestions that vastly improved the book’s clarity and readability. Profound thanks also to members of the United States  Acknowledgments Forest Service who took time out from their increasingly hectic lives to talk to an unknown graduate researcher. Without their insights, clarifications, and perspectives on contemporary fire management, the project would never have gotten off the ground. At the University Press of Colorado, thanks to Cheryl Carnahan for her stellar copyediting and to Daniel Pratt and Darrin Pratt. Finally, thanks to Mara Fridell for listening to me talk endlessly about forest fires for two years, for helping me think straight, and for her countless other forms of support. All of these people helped make this a better book. As usual, I remain solely responsible for any errors. xi A N o t e o n M e t h o d s This book is based primarily on archival material from across the country. Materials from the University of Oregon in Eugene, the Oregon Historical Society in Portland, the Forest History Society in Durham, NC, Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, the National Archives in Washington, DC, the Federal Records Center in Seattle, WA, and the Minnesota Historical Society in St. Paul were used to develop an account of relations between the Forest Service and industry, as well as the debates among foresters and conservationists in the early twentieth century. Of particular value on the former count was the Archive of the National Forest Products Association, formerly the National Lumber Manufacturers Association, located in the archives of the Forest History Society. This collection contained extensive correspondence between Forest Service officials and members of the organized timber industry, as well as a great deal of material detailing forestry debates that took place internally among key industry activists on the subjects of regulation, public forest ownership, and fire management. Archives of the Society of American Foresters, also at the Forest History Society, and the Papers of the National Forestry Committee at Cornell University were also highly valuable in this regard. The archival material is supplemented by interviews with Forest Service fire management professionals carried out during the summer of 2005. Managers across a range of ecosystem types in Oregon were interviewed before, during, xii A Note on Methods and after the fire season. Professionals up and down the managerial chain of command were interviewed about the Forest Service’s past, present, and future management of fire, organizational and societal enablers of and obstacles to the implementation of changing fire management policy, the specifics of fire management policy and practices in their respective national forests, budgetary constraints, and a range of other subjects. PotentialinterviewcandidateswerechosenfromtheUSFS’sonlinedirectory of officials, based on their professional titles and managerial responsibilities. An initial letter was sent to sixty-five potential candidates, inviting them to respond if they were interested in being interviewed or if they preferred not to be contacted again. Follow-up contact was made by telephone with those who did...