Wildfire
Books we’ve recommended about wildfire in the pages of Nature Book Guide
I recently corresponded with a friend, who asked about John Vaillant’s book, Fire Weather: On the Front Lines of a Burning World. We included it in our current Summer Reading issue, along with two others, Manjula Martin’s The Last Fire Season and Victor Steffensen’s Fire Country. Another book we loved and included in our Spring 2023 issue, Pam Houston’s Deep Creek, shared important passages about living through wildfire. (More on these books below.)
I wrote: “I enjoyed reading it, having experienced a close call with the Rock House Fire in Texas in 2011. I lived just three miles east of its origin, and with 50 mph winds, we were lucky that the wind was north that day. Marfa (pop. 2000) didn't have a public alert system in place. All we had was a loose plan for volunteers to ride around town honking their car horns.”
“In the image linked above, you can see my little town of Marfa just to the east of the origin. My life would have been literal toast, but for the shift of the wind. Cattle, pronghorn, ranchers, and homeowners (including friends) lost everything. More than 300,000 acres burned.”
”Your email prompted me to find this archived report from Marfa Public Radio. Living through the fire was a terrifying and sobering experience, but I'm grateful for its many lessons.”
Two dust devils in the distance on land scorched in the 2011 Rock House Fire in Far West Texas
It was a long wait before the summer monsoon rains made the landscape green again. Until then, we dealt with blackened desert and poor air quality. Two months after the fire, I took these photos of dust devils (naturally occurring whirlwinds that develop when the surface of the air is much warmer than the air above it) carrying scorched bits of the desert plants upward.
—Beth Nobles, Founder/Editor of Nature Book Guide
What’s it like to be inside a dust devil?
The Last Fire Season: A Personal and Pyronatural History, Manjula Martin, Pantheon, 2024, 354 pages. "Beautifully written, Manjula Martin’s memoir is the deeply personal story of living with the near-constant threat of wildfire."
Fire Country: How Indigenous Fire Management Could Help Save Australia, Victor Steffensen, Hardie Grant Travel, 2020, 221 pages. "...eye-opening and important read, Australian Indigenous land management expert Victor Steffensen passionately recalls his study of cultural fire practices under the tutelage of elders in North Queensland."
Fire Weather: On the Front Lines of a Burning World, John Vaillant, Knopf, 2023, 432 pages. "the feeling of “it will never happen here” created a dangerous mix in Fort McMurray (Alberta, Canada) in 2016. Fire Weather is a true story and a cautionary tale - we should all be better prepared.” --Courtney Lyons-Garcia, Book Recommendation Panelist
Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country, Pam Houston, WW Norton, 2019, 288 pages. "...a gripping and deeply personal story of hope and dedication and love for land," Houston includes her experience with wildfire on her ranch.