Wildfire: The Culture, Science, and Future of Fire

by Ferin Davis Anderson, Stephanie Sammartino McPherson

Overview

Discover the history of large-scale fire and what its future may look like in Wildfire.

Wildfire is a natural process that takes place worldwide. In dry conditions, a single spark can transform into a megafire that sweeps across the landscape, burning everything in its path. Despite fire’s deadly reputation, ecosystems such as forests and grasslands depend on it to clear out debris and promote new plant growth.

Environmental scientist Ferin Davis Anderson and author Stephanie Sammartino McPherson examine how Indigenous people, farmers, and forestry departments have used fire to manage natural resources and how human development and climate change are impacting the frequency and intensity of wildfires. By delving into how fires start and burn, fire suppression and firefighting, and the ecological importance of burns, they explore people’s long relationship with fire and reflect on fire’s regenerative benefits and destructive capabilities alike.

“Fire is part of nature. It’s just like the rain, the sunrise each day. It’s a natural occurrence, a part of nature necessary to complete lifecycles of different plants and animals.” –John Waconda, director of the Nature Conservancy’s Indigenous Partnerships Program

“Every time you put a fire out, you’re just postponing it. You just increase the actual fuel load that is out there, so when it does happen you get these massive megafire events.” –Malcolm North, fire ecologist

“Climate change is creating the perfect conditions for larger, more intense wildfires.” –Robert Scheller, professor of landscape ecology and associate dean of research at North Carolina State University

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781728424002
Publisher:	Lerner Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/02/2024
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	6.25(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	13 - 14 Years

About the Author

Ferin Davis Anderson is an environmental scientist and an enrolled citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa/Ojibwe/Anishinaabe/Mitchifs in North Dakota. She works as the Supervisor of Environmental Sciences for the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community's Land and Natural Resources Department where she is responsible for stewarding and restoring natural areas for the SMSC. Ferin weaves traditional knowledge and western science together to make more holistic management decisions, including using fire as an ecological and cultural tool to achieve beneficial and healing outcomes. Witnessing Indigenous people revitalize and reconnect with this practice has been one of the greatest gifts of her career.

Stephanie Sammartino McPherson wrote her first children's story in college. She enjoyed the process so much that she's never stopped writing. A former teacher and freelance newspaper writer, she has written more than thirty books and numerous magazine stories. Her recent books include Hothouse Earth: The Climate Crisis and the Importance of Carbon Neutrality, winner of the Green Earth Book Award for young adult nonfiction, and Breakthrough: Katalin Karikó and the mRNA Vaccine. Stephanie and her husband, Richard, live in Virginia.

Editorial Reviews

"It's nice to have this balanced, reassuring offering that puts wildfires into ecological perspective. . . This authoritative STEAM selection has multiple crosscurricular applications, engaging live action-style reporting on narrow escapes and heroic deeds, and serves as a buffer for climate anxiety."—starred, Booklist

From the Publisher

2024-02-17
Advocacy for Indigenous fire-management practices, a thorough account of wildfire science, information on firefighting—and a blazing black-and-orange color scheme—make this book a hot ticket.

Anderson, a scientist and enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, and prolific nonfiction author McPherson provide a balanced, well-written analysis of conflagrations. Paradoxically, fire causes damage but also has benefits, even as human land use competes with essential ecosystem regeneration. The authors contrast the natural role of wildfire in maintaining healthy ecosystems with horrific blazes that are worsened by mismanagement and climate change. Case studies highlight First Nations communities and individuals from around the world and show how scientists are increasingly considering Indigenous practices, sparking change. Scientists have come to accept what “for millennia, Indigenous peoples across the globe have understood,” that “by burning layers of dead vegetation that could otherwise become fuel, carefully tended fires lessened the chance of a disastrous wildfire.” These practices are also about “livelihood, traditions, beliefs, values, and spirituality.” The authors explain what fire is and describe fire suppression and prescribed burns in the U.S., conveying a lot of science in a palatable form. Climate change is at the heart of the story—and of this book. The text defines terms in context, contains helpful text boxes with additional information, and is supported by color photos.

Skillfully introduces the complex story of wildfires, Indigenous knowledge, and climate change. (timeline, glossary, source notes, selected bibliography, further information, index, photo acknowledgments) (Nonfiction. 13-18)

Kirkus Reviews