Ray Ring’s wonderful story on fire in the West
(HCN, 5/26/03: A losing battle) catches the deep tension we still
have between a wild and tame West. Fire, just like grizzlies,
drought, pine beetles and volcanoes, is a powerful force that has
shaped Western ecosystems for millennia. One side of our Western
culture has struggled mightily to tame these forces — killing
the grizzlies, spraying the beetles, suppressing fire. The other
side accepts, even extols the power of natural forces beyond our
control and the importance of disturbance to ecosystems.
Ring reveals the deep contradictions in our present national forest
plan, which on the surface seems to accept the need for fire to
maintain healthy forest, yet in reality spends millions to tame
fire and to keep it out of any place that newcomers choose to build
a house. This is an old pain, rooted in the side of our culture
which seeks to create a tame and safe West for whatever we wish to
do.
We have to keep asking, as Ring has, how much of the
West we want to be wild, how much tame? Fire, it seems, is more
like drought and volcanoes than like grizzlies and beetles. We
cannot fully control fire, drought or volcanoes. Sooner or later,
we are going to have to settle into the West and create a sensible
fire plan that will help us avoid a futile effort to tame the whole
place.
Bill Baker
Laramie,
Wyoming
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Keep fire wild.
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