|
|
Note: This issue is no longer available for purchase. "The
West is Burning Up!"
Our story begins with the Great 1910 Fire, a colossus that raged across northern Idaho and western Montana, incinerating three million acres of old growth timber in two days and nights. The ensuing public outrage forced a reluctant Congress to put the then fledgling U.S. Forest Service into the fire fighting business. This is one of the most compelling, meticulously researched stories ever told in Evergreen. In a style that is distinctly his own, Editor Jim Petersen recounts the history and aftermath of the 1910 fire. Eyewitness accounts, vignettes describing "Paiute Forestry" and the emergence of Smokey Bear, still the most recognized advertising symbol in history. Excerpts of the diary of Elers Koch, early on "one of Gifford Pinchot's boys," and highlights from a very public clash between Pinchot and W.B. Greeley, the first and third chiefs of the Forest Service. Also, interviews with the widely admired Bud Moore, who fought fires in the Northern Region for 40 years, forest health expert Dr. Jay O'Laughlin, and fire ecologist, Dr. Steve Arno.
|
Evergreen was the first magazine in the country to call attention to the perilous condition of the West's National Forests. Although it has been almost five years since this issue was published, it remains one of our most popular. 