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Book Review
| Forest Fires: The Story of a War. By Patrick Blanchet. Montreal: Cantos International Publishing, 2003. 182 pp. Bibliographical references. $39.95.
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| The addition of "in Quebec" to the title of this book would make it more accurate. This would in no way denigrate its contribution. As pointed out by noted forest fire authority Stephen J. Pyne in the preface, Canada's only other previous book-length study of the topic comes from Alberta. |
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The span of coverage in this book is impressive. It begins with the first provincial fire laws in 1870, an attempt to prevent standing timber from being ravished by escaped campfires or the flames of land clearing and slash burning by settlers. Copies of this seminal act were posted on trees and church doors as part of what has to be one of the first prevention campaigns in North America. The ensuing political history of provincial leadership is intertwined with the ongoing struggle to balance farming and forestry and the fair sharing of fire prevention and control costs between industrial forest operators and the government. Railroads were a major challenge, too. Although a law as early as 1883 required smokestacks to be equipped with primitive spark arresters, one train in 1908 kept two fire rangers busy suppressing nineteen fires it started in a single day. |
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This sometimes dry, sometimes dramatic story of war against fire includes the evolution of fire districts, cooperatives, permit systems, communication devices, fire fighting tools, and detection methods such as a variety of lookout towers. Perhaps the most significant weapon in the war against fire was the introduction of "aeroplane patrols" in 1919, an interesting episode that includes the brave antics of pioneer pilots. Public relations and "propaganda" are also part of the story. In fact, the twelve chapters and conclusion are each begun with nearly full page photos of prevention posters unlike any that are seen today. Blanchet's five years of exhaustive research turned up other rare photos that add much to the book. One is a haunting picture of young and old villagers sitting in the Canadian Forestry Association's Exhibition Car (a converted railroad car) glued to a new innovation called "cinematographic projection." In the 1920s, up to two thousand people would show up to see this novelty, the beginning of a rich tradition of Canadian films on forest conservation. The link between forest fire prevention, detection, and suppression is shown to be strong throughout Quebec's history. A good example is when La Vigilance, the first "Flying Boat" patrol plane, approached its base station in 1919 and dropped thousands of leaflets touting its mission and urging "every citizen to help protect our forests." |
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The value of the encyclopedic treatment of forest fires in this work is diminished somewhat through the unfortunate omission of a subject index. Thus, for example, to look for a connection to the Smokey Bear campaign, it is necessary to search every page (and in this case, not a word about the American icon is to be found). Aside from that irritation, this book offers a trove of information that will be valuable to lay readers or serious historians with an interest in forest fire history. |
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Reviewed by James R. Fazio, professor of resource recreation and tourism at the University of Idaho, who teaches a course in conservation history and philosophy. His books include Public Relations and Communications for Natural Resource Managers. Aspects of his earlier career with the USDA Forest Service provided experience in fire prevention, detection, and suppression. |
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