A NYT reporter recently wrote a book about the biggest forest fire in US history that most of us probably never heard of, and how it changed America's thinking on public land and even political identity. To set the stage: men of privilege Teddy Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot had their "green epiphanies", unveiled their conservation agenda, created the fledgling National Parks and US Forest Service (that managed protected national forest land in all states that summed up to an area the size of France) amid outrage from the Guilded Age robber barons and industrialists, who believed that they were entitled to as much free land as they wanted. Our government already gave - yes gave - the railroads 35M acres of land (the size of New England) to build on and apparently that wasn't enough. I understand America's need to encourage railroad development for economic growth, but at least pay rent on that land after the RR's became profitable, which they mostly did in spades. But TR's term ended and pro-business Taft took office, with senators from Western states working to undermine TR's reforms, gut the FS budget, and return things to the way they were.
Then in the summer of 1910, a perfect storm of conditions occurred: a very dry summer, many lightning storms, and hurricane-force high winds hit the US northwest. A huge conflagration developed that spread all over eastern WA, northern ID, and western MT, and consumed 3M acres in total (the size of CT). For perspective, the worst CA wildfire during the recent dry years consumed 100K acres near LA. Initially Taft did nothing, like Bush during Katrina. As Rahm Emmanuel said, "don't let a crisis go to waste," and the FS was called into action to justify its existence (since much of the fire was on their land). A bunch of idealistic Ivy League novices rushed to the fire zones, and the government also enlisted the help of a motley crew of Buffalo Soldiers, cheap immigrant laborers, and local volunteers from boom towns right out of "Deadwood" to dig huge fire lines to contain the blaze. At the time, rural firefighting didn't exist, so it was like a Chinese fire drill as FS rangers tried to improvise a solution. But they didn't understand fire physics and many workers died. As local towns were evacuated (and even larger cities like Missoula and Denver were at risk), "Titanic" like scenes of panicked people rushing the last lifeboat ensued, with US soldiers forcing men at gunpoint to stay behind as the women and children were evacuated first. The last trains out of town often passed over trestle bridges that were on fire, but fortunately held up long enough. As you may have expected, the black Buffalo Soldiers were not greeted with much love by the local rednecks, though their heroic actions literally saved at least one (all white) town, despite all the racial hatred flung at them during the whole process.
The FS's fire containment efforts were a failure, and the fire eventually died out due to lack of sustaining fuel and natural barriers. But the event changed public consciousness about the FS and land conservation. While western politicians tried to paint the FS employees as "hippie socialists" of the time, and some even claimed that the fire was "God's wrath" for America trying to deter the efforts of capitalists to exercise dominion over nature, the media helped create a public perception of the FS as heroic. So the FS was here to stay, and public land remained public. We often think of national forest land as containing the iconic Yosemite Falls or rock arches in Utah, but 90% of forest land is not parkland. It's just unspoiled America the way it was before America was even born. It's our natural riches. And like Woody Guthrie sang, "this land is your land, this land is my land." Residents can enjoy nature in every state, with the only possible obstruction being a permit or modest fee that is even tax-deductible. It was a revolutionary idea at the time, and most other nations had nothing similar (in Old Europe, the lords own the countryside), but since then some have emulated us. And all of that may not have been possible without TR, the FS, and the great fire.
Decades before the modern environmental movement and climate change debates, they just did it because it was the right thing for America and our future generations. And it was no small feat considering America's business influences in politics; the next great legislation would be the Endangered Species Act, Clean Water/Air Acts, and creation of the EPA under Nixon, partly in response to another calamity, the horrible Santa Barbara oil spill (it's interesting that the 2 greenest US presidents were Republicans). Maybe after the BP disaster, another round of green reforms will occur? But the billion-dollar DC lobbying machine didn't exist under TR and Nixon, so I don't know. Just imagine if Taft and the industrialists got their way and the FS was no more. How would America look today? Eastern forests were almost completely clear-cut before TR saved what remained, so would western states face the same fate just so the Rockefellers and Vanderbilts of the world could lay more track and sell more 2x4s? Forest destruction is implicated in the desertification of the Middle East in ancient times, and parts of China/Haiti today (http://www.youtube.com/watch?
But not all of the great fire's legacy was positive. The FS budget and duties were expanded, but now the service took on a firefighting role. No one wanted to see the events of 1910 repeated, but fires are as natural as rains. It's nature's recycling, and in fact some tree species can't even reproduce without fire stimulating seeds to mature. Forests that haven't burnt in a long time are powder kegs for a lightning bolt or careless human. Only recently has the FS accepted this and adopted a more "controlled burns" mentality. But unfortunately, the US public now expects the FS to contain every forest fire within 24 hours, and after 1910 FS chiefs expected to lose their jobs if they didn't. Their record of diligence gave Americans a false sense of security to live in fire-prone rural areas, and now over 20M of us live near a national forest. Those people vote and pay taxes, so they expect and demand an irrational level of fire protection. Every summer the West is now locked in a costly firefighting battle with Mother Nature, and the "fire industrial complex" has emerged (the author's term).
The fire also changed American politics. TR was so fed up with Taft's handling of the fire and disdain for the FS that he and his progressive allies broke off from the pro-business Republicans to create the Bull Moose Progressive Party (at the time, the Democrats were mostly Southern racists and conservatives). TR ran against Taft on that ticket but lost, and since then, progressive Republicans have mainly died out. So the modern GOP have their roots with Taft and Hoover, which later gave rise to the Reagans, Gingrichs, and Bushes of the world, whose hands-off approach to the energy industry partly led to the worst oil spill in US history. Amazing how some lightning, wind, and trees could change the world.
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