How Nostalgia Drives and Derails Living with Wildland Fire in the American West

Representations of fire in the U.S. are often tinged with nostalgia: for unburned landscapes, for less frequent fires, for more predictable fire behavior, or for a simpler, more harmonious relationship between human communities and wildfire. Our perspective piece identifies four prevalent nostalgic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Fire (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 5; no. 2; p. 53
Main Authors: Ladino, Jennifer, Kobziar, Leda N., Kredell, Jack, Cohn, Teresa Cavazos
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.04.2022
Subjects:
Burning
Catastrophic events
Climate change
Colonialism
Emotions
environmental humanities
fire management
firefighter
Firefighters
Forest & brush fires
Geography
Imperialism
media
Narratives
National parks
Nostalgia
Ownership changes
Representations
social dimensions
wildfire suppression
Wildfires
United States > US
California
ISSN:2571-6255, 2571-6255
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Representations of fire in the U.S. are often tinged with nostalgia: for unburned landscapes, for less frequent fires, for more predictable fire behavior, or for a simpler, more harmonious relationship between human communities and wildfire. Our perspective piece identifies four prevalent nostalgic figures that recur in popular representations of wildfire: the Giant Sequoia, the Heroic Firefighter engaged in “the Good Fight”, the Lone Frontiersman, and the “Noble Savage”. We assess the affordances and constraints of each of these figures for helping and/or hindering fire management. We consider how some forms of nostalgia position particular humans as heroes and fire as a villain, how others prioritize the communities that come together to face catastrophic fire events, and how some romanticize Indigenous burning practices. Drawing on knowledge from fire science, human geography, and the environmental humanities, we suggest that a more nuanced understanding of nostalgia can be useful for fire management and for finding healthier ways of living with more fire in the future.
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ISSN:2571-6255
2571-6255
DOI:10.3390/fire5020053