Tending Fire

Library Bookwatch, March, 2005

Tending Fire

Stephen J. Pyne

Island Press

1718 Connecticut Ave. #300 NW, Washington, DC 20009

1559635657 $25.00 1-800-828-1302

Each summer wildfires destroy American communities and wreck havoc--yet there are 'good' fires, too: those which restore habitats and strike habitats which rely on them for ecological balance. How to cope? Stephen Pyne is an expert on fire, having spent fifteen seasons fighting fires in the Grand Canyon: he outlines in Tending Fire: Coping With America's Wildland Fires, a new paradigm for viewing American wildland fires, discussing the history of fires and human habitats around the world, and contrasting the pros and cons of current fire politics in the last decade.