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Awful Splendor: A Fire History of Canada by Stephen J. Pyne

2009; Oregon Historical Society; Volume: 110; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/ohq.2009.0025

2329-3780

William G. Robbins,

American Environmental and Regional History

distribution of the Japaneseas possible," a deci sion that served to furtherfragment Japanese American communities and theirhistories (p. 107). Indeed, theagency's directormoved on to theBureau of Indian Affairs,where he would promote termination, the ill-conceived break ingup of reservations and tribalism. Haunted by Waters closeswith a chapter on how Native Americans, Japanese Americans, and communalistic Mormons have persisted ina state where powerfulwhite residents often resented and resisted theirpresence. Though not a conventional history, this book is informed and supported by sound historical scholarship and relevant sources. Most of all, it is a personable and penetrating exploration ofhow people of color,particularly JapaneseAmericans, havemade their mark on thehistory and the landscape of a place whose leaders sought tomarginalize and expel them. Part of the burden of Pacific Northwest his tory is forall of us to come to termswith this weighty and largelyunacknowledged legacyof racism and other expressions ofwhite domi nance. Robert Hayashi has provided uswith an invaluable tool fordoing just that. David Peterson del Mar Portland, Oregon AWFULSPLENDOR:A FIRE HISTORY OF CANADA byStephen J. Pyne University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver and Toronto, 2008. Photographs, maps, tables, notes, index. 548 pages. $85.00 cloth. $34.95 paper. Stephen Pyne, the leading authority on global fire,has published yet another book, telling Canada's story through the lens of grassland and forestfiresfrom the timeof retreatinggla ciers toour presentmoment ofglobalwarming. Awful Splendor recastsCanadian history "with fire as an organizing conceit" (p. xxv). The author offers up a series of "nested narratives" of climate and climatic zones, of dramatically differingfire regimes, of the conflictedworld of dominion and provincial politics, and of thebureaucracies and ideas that shaped what Canadians thought about fire. The result is a sweeping analytical narrative outlining the complex interactionsofhumans and fireacross the amazingly diverse Canadian landscape. From a veryearly time,as theydid elsewhere around the globe, humans began to reshape the biotic landscapes inwhat would become Canada. As glaciers retreated northward, humans colonized post-glacial North America sometime around 11,500 BP, carrying with them in memory and practice "a power no other creature possessed. They could kindle fire" (p. 7). For severalmillennia thereafter, fires waxed andwaned inaccordwith cooling andwarming climatic conditions. The fires thatbest define Canada today, the fire-prone boreal forest that embraces much of continental Canada, were put to the torchby the indigenes to make their surroundings better suited to human survival. Pyne points to their central strategy forusing the torch: "to control thegeography of foraging and hence influence the migration of herds" (p. 35). All of thischanged with European contact, afterwhich cultural disturbances increased exponentially. Cutting and burning brush to make way forpastureland and plow dramati cally increased the human-ignited fires that burned across the land. The capstone to the settler infernos in the eastern provinces was New Brunswick's great Miramichi Fire of 1825, a symbolic and defining event that scorched some 5,000 to 8,000 square miles and more than 3.8million acres before fall rains and freezing temperatures stilled the embers. The Miramichi holocaust, Pyne contends, "became the standard and typebywhich, fora century, all other colonizing fireswere measured" (p. 131). Like theircounterparts in the United States, Canadian policymakers slowlygroped toward 144 OHQ vol. no, no. i federal and provincial standards to cope with thethreatoffire.Because theyhad administra tiveresponsibilities fortheir lands and natural resources, first the eastern and then the western provinces exercised increasing authority in coping with fire. Even when the dominion government mandated specific firemanage ment practices, theprovinces largelycontrolled theirown destiny because the federal parlia ment refused to provide funds to enforce its own regulations. This schizophrenic duality has characterized Canadian fire policy from its inception to the present day. Formost of thishistory,theprovinces remained suspicious of federal initiatives, a mindset that assured persistent quarreling. This is an important book for interiorand coastal forestdistrictsof thePacificNorthwest. BritishColumbia, theprovince inclosest prox imityto theAmerican Northwest, possessed a similar geography ? a rainforestwest and a drier east? conditions, according to Pyne, "that set thepattern of itsfires" (p. 313).As it did in the states of Idaho,Montana, Oregon, andWashington, firepolicy inBritishColum bia developed in tandem with the province's lumber industry. With most of its forested areas designated as Crown lands, theprovince recognized...