Wildfires are burning hotter, the wildfire season is lasting longer, and new “mega fires” are causing damage to hundreds of thousands of acres. Fire suppression costs the federal and state governments around $4 billion each year — and that doesn’t include costs for structure damage. These fires are affecting more and more people.
Nature and science writer Gary Ferguson noted these problems and they piqued his curiosity, leading him to research and eventually write a book about them.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to spend lots and lots of time as a writer in the backcountry of the Western United States,” he said in an interview with the Deseret News. “I started was back in 1970s and I have been long aware of the role of fire in a healthy ecosystem.”
However, he explained that today, due to several issues discussed in his new book, “Land on Fire: The New Reality of Wildfire in the West," (Timber Press, $27.95, 212 pages) fires are becoming more destructive and even more frightening.
Ferguson grew up in Indiana, but he said by age 9 he knew he wanted to move west, taking the opportunity when he left home for college. Since that time, he has explored thousands of miles of trails, rivers and back roads, writing about what he has seen and studied.
“Land on Fire” is Ferguson’s 25th book. Passionate about nature and wildlife, his writing stays close to both topics. However, he said as a science writer, he is simply a messenger, and that in "Land on Fire," the real heroes are the firefighters, researchers and other experts he details.
“I’m hoping to give voice to their work through this book,” Ferguson said.
He started this book by writing down his observations from over 30 years of “tromping around in the wilderness,” he said. Then he hit the books and articles in scientific journals to find answers. Finally, he called experts who work with fires to answer his final questions. When his book was finished, he showed it to experts to make sure he had his information right. He said working with the experts was one of the best parts of the project.
It's a subject that affects more Americans than people may think. Roughly 120 million people, or about a third of the U.S. population, lives in what fire experts call “wild land-urban interface.” Simply put, the term means areas where nature and housing or other developments meet. Furthermore, areas of wild land-urban interface about twice the size of California have been identified as high-risk for fires — and residents and lands in Utah fall in this category.
In addition, Ferguson notes that people also need to be aware that states spend a tremendous amount of money on fire suppression, that fires create a potential loss of clean water from forests, and that forests diminished by fires will result in diminished carbon absorption.
“For all of those reasons I think that this is a topic that we need to pay more attention to sooner rather than later,” he said.
But it's not all bad news. Research is ongoing on how to fix these problems, and Ferguson and experts are looking to the future.
“We can’t necessarily stop these fires, but we can act in an intelligent way to minimize the damage," he said.
If you go …
What: Gary Ferguson multimedia presentation and book signing
When: June 17, 2 p.m.
Where: The King's English, 1511 S. 1500 East
Web: kingsenglish.com
Note: The signing line is for those who buy a copy of the featured book from The King's English.
Ferguson will be at the Kings English in Salt Lake City, June 17 at 2 p.m. to discuss the book. During that time, he will be giving a multimedia presentation.
Email: maren.mcinnes@gmail.com