California

A Fire Survey

Nonfiction, Science & Nature, Science, Biological Sciences, Ecology, Environmental Science
Cover of the book California by Stephen J. Pyne, University of Arizona Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Stephen J. Pyne ISBN: 9780816535132
Publisher: University of Arizona Press Publication: June 17, 2016
Imprint: University of Arizona Press Language: English
Author: Stephen J. Pyne
ISBN: 9780816535132
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Publication: June 17, 2016
Imprint: University of Arizona Press
Language: English

The coastal sage and shrublands of California burn. The mountain-encrusting chaparral burns. The conifer forests of the Sierra Nevada, Cascades, and Trinity Alps burn.  The rain-shadowed deserts after watering by El Niño cloudbursts and the thick forests of the rumpled Coast Range—all burn according to local rhythms of wetting and drying. Fire season, so the saying goes, lasts 13 months.

In this collection of essays on the region, Stephen J. Pyne colorfully explores the ways the region has approached fire management and what sets it apart from other parts of the country. Pyne writes that what makes California’s fire scene unique is how its dramatically distinctive biomes have been yoked to a common system, ultimately committed to suppression, and how its fires burn with a character and on a scale commensurate with the state’s size and political power. California has not only a ferocity of flame but a cultural intensity that few places can match. California’s fires are instantly and hugely broadcast. They shape national institutions, and they have repeatedly defined the discourse of fire’s history. No other place has so sculpted the American way of fire.

California is part of the multivolume series describing the nation’s fire scene region by region. The volumes in To the Last Smoke also cover Florida, the Northern Rockies, the Great Plains, the Southwest, and several other critical fire regions. The series serves as an important punctuation point to Pyne’s fifty-year career with wildland fire—both as a firefighter and a fire scholar. These unique surveys of regional pyrogeography are Pyne’s way of “keeping with it to the end,” encompassing the directive from his rookie season to stay with every fire “to the last smoke.”

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

The coastal sage and shrublands of California burn. The mountain-encrusting chaparral burns. The conifer forests of the Sierra Nevada, Cascades, and Trinity Alps burn.  The rain-shadowed deserts after watering by El Niño cloudbursts and the thick forests of the rumpled Coast Range—all burn according to local rhythms of wetting and drying. Fire season, so the saying goes, lasts 13 months.

In this collection of essays on the region, Stephen J. Pyne colorfully explores the ways the region has approached fire management and what sets it apart from other parts of the country. Pyne writes that what makes California’s fire scene unique is how its dramatically distinctive biomes have been yoked to a common system, ultimately committed to suppression, and how its fires burn with a character and on a scale commensurate with the state’s size and political power. California has not only a ferocity of flame but a cultural intensity that few places can match. California’s fires are instantly and hugely broadcast. They shape national institutions, and they have repeatedly defined the discourse of fire’s history. No other place has so sculpted the American way of fire.

California is part of the multivolume series describing the nation’s fire scene region by region. The volumes in To the Last Smoke also cover Florida, the Northern Rockies, the Great Plains, the Southwest, and several other critical fire regions. The series serves as an important punctuation point to Pyne’s fifty-year career with wildland fire—both as a firefighter and a fire scholar. These unique surveys of regional pyrogeography are Pyne’s way of “keeping with it to the end,” encompassing the directive from his rookie season to stay with every fire “to the last smoke.”

More books from University of Arizona Press

Cover of the book From Enron to Evo by Stephen J. Pyne
Cover of the book Field Man by Stephen J. Pyne
Cover of the book American Indians and National Forests by Stephen J. Pyne
Cover of the book Centuries of Decline during the Hohokam Classic Period at Pueblo Grande by Stephen J. Pyne
Cover of the book Dodger Blue Will Fill Your Soul by Stephen J. Pyne
Cover of the book Spider Woman Stories by Stephen J. Pyne
Cover of the book Radical Territories in the Brazilian Amazon by Stephen J. Pyne
Cover of the book Leaving Tulsa by Stephen J. Pyne
Cover of the book The Painted Desert by Stephen J. Pyne
Cover of the book Aztlán Arizona by Stephen J. Pyne
Cover of the book Dragons in the Land of the Condor by Stephen J. Pyne
Cover of the book Encountering Life in the Universe by Stephen J. Pyne
Cover of the book The Interior West by Stephen J. Pyne
Cover of the book Friars, Soldiers, and Reformers by Stephen J. Pyne
Cover of the book De Grazia by Stephen J. Pyne
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy