A Season of Fire: Four Months on the Firelines of America's Forests - Hardcover

Gantenbein, Douglas

3.9

29 ratings by Goodreads

9781585421763: A Season of Fire: Four Months on the Firelines of America's Forests

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1585421766 ISBN 13: 9781585421763

Publisher: Tarcher, 2003

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

A journalist goes behind the scenes to explore the lives of smokejumpers and wilderness firefighters, following the harrowing fire season of 2001, during which fires across the west devastated thousands of acres and took the lives of four firefighters, in an account that examines the potentially dangerous situation that exists in the American West. 12,500 first printing.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:

Douglas Gantenbein has written for The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times Magazine, Sports Illustrated, Popular Science, and Backpacker. Author of the Outside magazine column "The Gear Guy," he teaches at the University of Washington and is a member of Seattle Mountain Rescue, the oldest and largest volunteer wilderness rescue organization in the United States.

From Publishers Weekly:

In this thoroughly engaging and thought-provoking book, Gantenbein, a writer for Sports Illustrated and Outside magazines, traveled from state to state covering major fires during the summer of 2001 to show "the strengths and weaknesses of how wildland fire is fought in the Western United States." Gantenbein has the knack for presenting complex material in a direct and exciting style, and as he explains the intricate differences among fires in Wyoming, Yellowstone National Park and Montana, he conveys an amazing amount of material related to fires and firefighting: the use of Pulaskis, "the combination hoe and pick that is the essential tool in the firefighting arsenal"; why the Ponderosa pine is more dangerous than the Douglas fir; and the key differences between the physically exhausting work of smokejumpers and the elite hotshots, who dig the fireline. Gantenbein's detailed observations about both the science and the economics of fires and firefighting help him forcefully demonstrate that "the continuing war on forest fires is a waste of time, money and lives," and that new approaches to thinking about fires are needed to "get beyond the current poisoned atmosphere between environmentalists, the Forest Service, and the logging industry."
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.