Living with Fire: Fire Ecology and Policy for the Twenty-first Century / Edition 1

by Sara E. Jensen, Guy R. McPherson

Overview

Fire, both inevitable and ubiquitous, plays a crucial role in North American ecosystems. But as necessary as fire is to maintaining healthy ecosystems, it threatens human lives and livelihoods in unacceptable ways. This volume explores the rich yet largely uncharted terrain at the intersection of fire policy, fire science, and fire management in order to find better ways of addressing this pressing dilemma. Written in clear language, it will help scientists, policy makers, and the general public, especially residents of fire-prone areas, better understand where we are today in regard to coping with wildfires, how we got here, and where we need to go. Drawing on abundant historical and analytic information to shed new light on current controversies, Living with Fire offers a dynamic new paradigm for coping with fire that recognizes its critical environmental role. The book also tells how we can rebuild the important ecological and political processes that are necessary for finding better ways to cope with fire and with other complex policy dilemmas.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520255890
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	08/04/2008
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.84(w) x 8.32(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Sara E. Jensen is Private Lands Conservation Associate with Defenders of Wildlife. Guy R. McPherson, Professor of Natural Resources and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona, is author of Applied Ecology and Natural Resource Management among other books.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments

Introduction: Uncertainty and Change

1. Wildland Fire in the West: The Big Picture
2. Fanning the Flames: Human Influences on Fire Regimes
3. The Failed State of Fire Suppression
4. Logging the Forests to Save Them
5. Tools for Living with Fire
6. Policy Solutions

Notes
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"A well-written polemic. . . . The authors provide a particularly good treatment of the diversity of roles that fire plays in different ecosystems."—Quarterly Review of Biology

Editorial Reviews

This book will be appreciated by all who are affected by wildfire.

Southeastern Naturalist

A well-written polemic. . . . The authors provide a particularly good treatment of the diversity of roles that fire plays in different ecosystems. . . .  Those who are interested in being more critical consumers of a news media that simplifies and hyperbolizes the fire story will find this an interesting and valuable read.

Quarterly Review of Biology

"Written for the lay person or someone with limited knowledge of federal fire policy and recent laws. . . . a fair introduction to fire policy in the United States." 

Environmental History

The authors offer abundant historical and analytic information to shed new light on current controversies.

Botanical Research Institute of Texas

If you live where brush or forest fires are possible, check out [Living with Fire].

Arizona Daily Star

The authors offer abundant historical and analytic information to shed new light on current controversies.

Botanical Research Ícaro|Ícaro|Ícaro|Institute of Texas

“A well-written polemic. . . . The authors provide a particularly good treatment of the diversity of roles that fire plays in different ecosystems.

Qtly Review Of Biology