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Early History of Wildland Firefighting
Where do we start discussing wildland fire history–with the beginning of the Earth, with the first hominoid use of fire, which may have occurred well over a million years ago, or with the evolution of prescribed fire beginning in the 1930s in the United States? Or do we define prescribed fire in terms of the Australian Aborigine ancient "firestick" land management practices where fires were started continuously to cleanse the land.
Where we start to tell the story is appropriately defined by those who are listening to our story. The stories of wildland fire, while often having great entertainment value, are told primarily to convey critical resource issue messages.
The story of the history of fire is fascinating. It is a story of how fire has shaped the landscape, our human history, our cultural evolution, and the natural and built communities in which we reside. It is a story of building up and burning down, of shaping and reshaping. While natural wildland fire has exerted its own shaping forces, humans using both native wisdom and scientific knowledge of fire ecology and fire management have also shaped fire regimes.
As we tell the story of fire to illustrate the science of wildland fire management, we also need to tell stories that promote coexistence with wildland fire. We are reminded each year as the fire season manifests itself that fire has been with us since the beginning of time and will probably be with us throughout time.
North America has a rich wildland fire history illustrating human coexistence with fire, the impacts of fire suppression, and the ravages of wildland fire. The Forest History Society (www.lib.duke.edu/forest/), among others, catalogs such conservation history.
North American wildland fire history is usually interpreted as events, mostly conflagrations. However, wildland fire should be interpreted as an ongoing organic event. The process is often...