You might think a book about wildfire would start with flames, and it does, but before the story gets going our conversational narrator gifts readers vast swaths of background knowledge essential to understanding how, despite superior tools and more resources, today wildfires are destroying more American acres, endangering more lives, and costing ever-increasing billions. Well-researched chapters establish the use of fire as a land management tool by Native Americans, the despoiling of the natural environment that led to the conservation movement and thus the disastrous modern suppression of fire and enshrinement of nature as something untouched by humans. A chapter specific to the Golden State sharpens the focus on human responsibility for a triple threat of climate change, unnatural forests full of a hundred years of tinder, and human encroachment into fire-prone forests, all of which have led to our recent disastrous fires. Dramatic chapters filled with horrific accounts of massive fires and heroic efforts to save lives enliven the narrative. A failure to mention Herbert L. Stoddard, the father of science-based American fire ecology, feels like an oversight and the swapping of turpentine in place of kerosene as the fuel that saved the whales is not borne out by the source cited. Budding environmentalists, report writers, and concerned smoke-breathers will find a wealth of valuable information. Back matter includes extensive source notes, bibliography, picture credits, and index. Includes California-specific content.

Hugh places of North American forest were in danger of massive, uncontrollable firestorms, first by loggers who swept in, ignoring the management practices of Indigenous populations, and then by racist preservationists and conservationists, led by John Muir and Gifford Pinchot, who misguidedly decided that all forest fires were bad. The author does honor present day firefighters work. There is also included topics such as the how the U.S. military studied natural firestorms in order to create artificial ones in enemy cities in World War II to the toxic environmental effects of modern fire-retardant chemicals dropped on forests. The photos in the book show contemporary and historical images of fire and after the fires. Included in this book are notes, selected sources, picture credits and index. It is a fascinating book to read.

Marrin, Albert, When Forests Burn pgs. 256. Penguin Random House, 2024.

Many humans don’t realize forests need fire to burn unhealthy trees and clear the forest floor. In fact, until humans started cutting down forests for civilization, fires weren’t controllable. Attempting to educate human on deforestation, interventions, and wildfires, Merrin stresses the importance of learning from past mistakes. Included are diagrams of natural processes, photographs, notes, selected sources, and indexes.
The layout is well done and engaging. The flow of the story is smooth like narrative non-fiction. The information provided is helpful, informative, and includes great resources for further information. Readers interested in historical non-fiction, wildfires, disasters, and environment non-fiction will want to pick this one up. Recommended for most library collections. Gr 5 and up, 4 stars

Please note: This was a review copy given to us by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. No financial compensation was received.

When Forests Burn is somewhat of an academic read. The author goes to great lengths to discuss wildfires in a historical context, and he often references ancillary events or facts that don’t at first blush appear to be directly related to the book’s subject. The first eighty pages (starting with the ice age) are essentially setting the table for meatier portions of the book which look at devastating fires in history and the development of policy around wildfires. The conclusion feels a bit sudden with only a few pages of the text being forward-looking. However, overall, this book flows naturally and has many interesting and mind-blowing statistics. The first-person accounts of some of the fires are sobering and illustrate the awe-inspiring force of nature.

This book is well researched and footnoted with approximately 50 of the 256 pages devoted to footnotes, citing sources, and providing other resource material. The documents and illustrations are all in black and white. Avid fans of hard-core non-fiction or students doing research would be drawn to this thorough book.

This book is extremely informative. This will make an excellent nonfiction companion for when I read aloud Alan Gratz’s book Two Degrees during my environmental activism unit.