The Social Dimensions of Wildfire -- Forester-Kings? Fire Suppression and the State -- Managing in the Wake of the Ax -- Out of the Frying Pan : Catastrophic Fire as a "Crisis of Crisis Management" -- The Weight of Past Weakness : Prospects for Ecological Modernization in Fire Management -- Conclusion: The Chronic Parolee
Summary
Most journalists and academics attribute the rise of wildfires in the western United States to the USDA Forest Service's successful fire-elimination policies of the twentieth century. However, in Fire Management in the American West, Mark Hudson argues that although a century of suppression did indeed increase the hazard of wildfire, the responsibility does not lie with the USFS alone. The roots are found in the Forest Service's relationships with other, more powerful elements of society--the timber industry in particular. Drawing on correspondence both between and within the Forest Service a