Steve Pyne, the author of several books on the history of wildland fire, has posted on his Arizona State University web site an essay in which he looks at the past and into the future. Here is an excerpt:

“…The reason is that the primary driver of the American fire scene is not amenable to technical fixes and funding. It’s about how Americans live on their land. It’s about values. This is where the National Cohesive Strategy, which could act for the American fire community as a new treaty might for the EU, should help. Unfortunately the Cohesive Strategy puts science at its core when the reality is politics. The fire scene is not about positive knowledge; it’s about choices, and values chosen get sorted out by politics. We’re talking about the public estate and public safety. If those aren’t matters for democratic politics, what is? The decisive issue is not whether our science is good enough, but whether our politics is.”