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Read a snippet from our conversation here: FUSEE: When you were wildland firefighting, it was all in very wild lands. Now just about every wildfire that makes the news involves structure protection, and this is changing how and where firefighters engage wildfire. What is the way forward in dealing with large wildfires burning in extreme conditions with people and property scattered all over the place? Joe Fox: “As smokejumpers, we were always the backcountry firefighters, but things started changing in the mid-to-late 1980s when more frequently we were called in to protect structures. By the way, that's all they've ever done in Alaska: cabin protection - but that was so expensive. People used to joke back then that instead of dropping in crews and supplies to try to protect isolated cabins, they ought to send in one person with a checkbook and tell folks they're going to lose their cabin, so just take the money and run. That would have been safer, cheaper, and probably better for the land. Now it's almost unavoidable that the government can't avoid legal or political obligations to provide property protection. But the government doesn't have enough money or resources to protect the entire landscape and homes, so it must make choices. This gives us a great opportunity to promote ecological fire use and backcountry wildfire monitoring by "fire rangers" for the sake of both safety and economy.” FUSEE: As both a scientist and an artist, what is your vision of the role of art and science in ecological fire management?
JF: “I think there is an acquired aesthetic appreciation of fire in landscapes where you can really see the ecosystem at work when a fire burns through it. Every firefighter should know how to stop fire in one place and then steer it into another area. I think crews are gaining more of a sense of how to use the landscape as a palette to paint with a driptorch, and they should have more "artistic license" to be able to do more of that. We have this nostalgia about the way places looked like before, but all forests are beautiful when you see them for the first time, including new forests born after fire.” FUSEE: Looking back on your career, and ahead to the future of fire management, what do you feel the wildland fire community needs?
JF: “We need more science, but even more we need the courage to do what we know is right for the safety of firefighters, communities, and ecosystems. Next, we need to come from the heart with humility to serve the needs of the ecosystem, while nurturing the artistry of fire use on the landscape. Last, we’ll know Ecological Fire Management is being done right when we see the beauty in its results. For good reason, beauty was one of the criteria in Aldo Leopold’s Land Ethic.” Thank you, Joe, for your thoughtfulness and meaningful contributions to FUSEE!
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