History of wildfire suppression in the United States

Wildfire suppression has had a long and varied history in the United States. For most of the 20th century, any form of wildland fire, whether it was naturally caused or otherwise, was quickly suppressed for fear of uncontrollable and destructive conflagrations such as the Peshtigo Fire in 1871 and the Great Fire of 1910. In the 1960s, policies governing wildfire suppression changed due to ecological studies that recognized fire as a natural process necessary for new growth. Policies advocating complete fire suppression have evolved to those that encourage wildland fire use, or the allowing of fire to act as a tool, such as the case with controlled burns.

Fire suppression and settler colonialism

Native American use of fire in ecosystems are part of the environmental cycles and maintenance of wildlife habitats that sustain the cultures and economies of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Indigenous peoples have used burning practices to manage, protect, and relate to their surrounds since time immemorial. According to sociologist Kari Norgaard: "Indigenous peoples have long set low-intensity fires to manage eco-cultural resources and reduce the buildup of fuels – flammable trees, grasses and brush – that cause larger, hotter and more dangerous fires, like the ones that have burned across the West in recent years. Before fire suppression, forests in the West experienced a mix of low- to high-severity fires for millennia. Large, high-severity fires played an important ecological role, yet their spread was limited by low-severity fires set by indigenous peoples" "Fire suppression was mandated by the very first session of the California Legislature in 1850," and with the institution of the Weeks Act in 1911, "cultural uses of fire" were essentially made "illegal and for the many decades following, less and less burning occurred while more and more vegetation grew. Over a century of policies of fire suppression have created the conditions for the catastrophic, high-intensity wildfires we are seeing today" according to the Karuk Tribe of Northern California's Climate Adaptation Plan. Because many Indigenous groups viewed fire as a tool for ecosystem management, education, and a way of life, such suppression would lead to decreased food availability and breakdown of social and familial structures. It has been argued by numerous scholars that such suppression should be seen as a form of "Colonial Ecological Violence," "which results in particular risks and harms experienced by Native peoples and communities." Eventually, without small-scale managerial fires set by Indigenous peoples, wildfires would grow in size and severity because of buildup of vegetation on the forest floor in combination with Climate change. As the U.S. Forest Service and environmental scientists come to understand the long-term damage that such suppression has done, Indigenous peoples have provided the Forest Service a better understanding of how traditional burning practices are necessary for forests and people.

19th century and early firefighting In the eastern United States, with its significant rainfall, wildfires are relatively small and have rarely posed great risk to life and property. As settlements moved further west into drier areas, the first large scale fires were encountered. Range fires on the Great Plains and forest fires in the Rocky Mountains were far larger and more destructive than what had ever been seen in the east. Yellowstone National Park was established in 1872 as the world's first national park. For the next several years, administration of the park languished until 1886 when the U. S. Army was assigned the responsibility for its protection. Upon its arrival in the park, the Army found numerous fires burning in developed areas as well as in areas where it was not reasonable to control them. The commanding officer decided that human-caused fires along roads posed the biggest threat and that the Army would concentrate its suppression efforts on the control of those fires. There were not enough soldiers to fight all of the fires. Thus, came the first conscious decision by a manager of federal land to allow some fires to burn while others were controlled. The policy of fire suppression was also applied to Sequoia, General Grant, and Yosemite national parks when they were established in 1890, and Army patrols were initiated to guard against fires, livestock trespass, and illegal logging.

A number of catastrophic fire events over the years greatly influenced fire management policies. The worst loss of life in United States history due to a wildfire occurred in 1871 when the Peshtigo Fire swept through Wisconsin, killing more than 1500 people. The Santiago Canyon Fire of 1889 in California and especially the Great Fire of 1910 in Montana and Idaho contributed to the philosophy that fire was a danger that needed to be suppressed. The Great Fire of 1910 had burned 3,000,000 acres (12,000 km2), destroyed a number of communities and killed 86 people, and this event prompted various land management agencies to emphasize wildfire suppression. U.S. Government land agencies, including the National Park Service, generally followed the fire management policies established by the U.S. Forest Service, which oversees the majority of the nation's forestlands. (See "The Big Burn" a 2014 PBS documentary American Experience (season 27)). This would lead to the passage of the 1911 Weeks Act.

Suppression as a rule

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