All this environmental destruction and
loss of lives and property is just too much for me to stand by and not try to
follow up on my father's unfinished business.
Ed had intended to write a popular fire book before he died, but it was
not to be. So in appreciation of my
father and the public need, I thought I would write this fire book.
It is my desire that once the readers have
read this book, it will add to a comprehensive understanding of the role
of fire in nature and the need to reform the system. It is my hope that citizens and leaders of
all stripes and persuasions, armed with fire knowledge and native wisdom, will
be able to take constructive action to better preserve and protect nature's
ecosystems, man, and the earth itself.
It is imperative that we better educate and inform the layperson as well as the scientist, bureaucrat, and politician. We can't just study and debate fire and deteriorating fragmenting ecosystems to death; we have to become involved activists and change the culture. Good science can support culture, but it is culture that drives action and consequently reform. We, the people, have a damaging and dysfunctional culture of fire exclusion and suppression in globa l land-management agencies. The current systematic deplorable situation is comprised of a mix of bad science, bad economics, bad politics, and a 120-year assault on public consciousness.
It is obvious that we are dealing with an
entrenched culture of failure the past 120 years in these over centralized and unwieldy
government land-management bureaucracies.
There is a failure to adequately acknowledge past misdeeds, a failure to
remedy those misdeeds, and a general failure to protect nature and the public
interest.
When a business is failing, hired guns are
sent in to observe, and then to make things right when current management can't
reform itself. It's a painful process
for the organizations, as people responsible for failure and excuses are fired or repositioned in a management shakeup.
But it's not nearly as painful as bankruptcy, or the catastrophic consequences
to the public and nature as in this case.
Some will be sure to argue, well what
about our successes? My answer to that
question is success as measured against what?
I measure our very limited success in fire management against the
continued increase in fuel loads globally, resulting in massive catastrophic
fire catastrophes destroying many lives, property, and whole fire global
ecosystems. Let's not get lost in the
details and forget about the big picture!
Pain and suffering are necessary factors
that drive cultural reform, and we certainly have had enough of this pain already. The question really is, how much more pain is
required before the necessary changes are made?
Our collective job is to change the culture of fire suppression to one
of good fire management. Ultimately, it
will not be public officials, scientists, and business that protect and
constructively manage global fire environments and the multitudes of plant and
animal species dependent on fire. It's
going to take an informed, aware, and activist public demanding and forcing
change to do the job.
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