This is the Preface from Tragedy by Committee, the new book about the Cerro Grande Fire.
The Cerro Grande Fire was one of the most misunderstood yet important
events in New Mexico and Western United States history. It was important in
New Mexico because it was the culmination of many human impacts on the
environment spread out over centuries. Many of those impacts are largely
hidden from all but trained eyes. The fire was a study of cumulative
unintended consequences.
The Cerro Grande Fire had large impact on the Western US as the lessons
learned from it changed federal fire policy permanently. The story told here
boils down to lessons learned and new practices enacted on every prescribed
fire and even most wild fires in America.
I wrote this book after reading and listening to media and investigative
accounts of the fire which were clearly poorly informed. I felt the public
and the land managers deserved to have a more complete story of the fire
told so the they would be able to better understand this region¹s beautiful
environment and its environmental history and so that we all could get
beyond the blame and recriminations that dominated popular accounts of the
fire in 2000.
If any theme dominated my study of the Cerro Grande Fire, it was the
complexity of environmental history and the complexity of wildfire and fire
management. Fire truly is a fascinating event that is driven by multiple
environmental factors that play into each other in ways that even career
professionals never fully understand. The natural world is sensitive and
delicate and our exploitations have long lasting consequences.
Prescribing fire on the landscape involves risk. Sometimes, as in Cerro
Grande, the risk taken results in disaster. For land managers, there really
is no option but to prescribe fire, to restore fire to a landscape where
fire is native and necessary for the survival of the biological systems.
Cerro Grande showed us both the consequences of taking a risk with fire and
more dramatically, the consequences of avoiding that risk.
I hope readers will appreciate this paradox and the difficulty it poses
to those who manage our public heritage in the federal land management
agencies.
May 26, 2010 at 10:43 am |
Tom, just came across your blog from a series of links from your review of “The Big Burn” at the LLC website. I was the Ignition Specialist on UF 10 prescribed fire that eventually became the Cerro Grande fire. Your preface is well written and I was glad to see you got Tim to write your forward(he is an old friend of mine) I’ll look forward to reading the book, good luck with it.
Keep one in the black – MPS
July 13, 2010 at 5:21 pm |
Thanks Matt. Yes I remember you well and I heard your name many times when researching the book. I knew you a little at the U of O when you were in the Outdoor program.
I am interested in any comments you have on the book. I’m sure you’ll have plenty of input since you were right there at critical times on Cerro Grande.
August 6, 2010 at 10:01 am |
I’ll be looking for a copy soon Tom, hope this finds you well. Say hi to Lissoway for me the next time you see him.
Keep one in the black – Matt