jodie8869

Fire Season Field Notes From A Wilderness by Philip Connors was a delightful surprise on many levels. I have a longterm history of loving the southwest and a great appreciation for authors such as Edward Abbey. Mr. Connors follows in the fire lookout footsteps of luminaries such as Mr. Abbey, Jack Kerouac, and Normal Maclean. He has served up a a truly wonderful narrative on life and the affect that man and fire have had in the mountains of the southwest. Fire Season is basically two narratives in one. Mr. Connors alternates between sharing his own stories and ruminations on life as a fire lookout atop Apache Peak as well as giving the reader an overall history of the mountains of New Mexico and the evolution of forestry response to fire beginning with the creation of the Forest Service in 1905. In many regards it is part memoir and part forestry lesson. While I enjoyed this book a great deal, it is not for everyone. For those who turn a blind eye toward history this book will probably miss the mark. For those with an appreciation of nature and how complex dynamics such as livestock grazing, watersheds, fire suppression, and bureaucratic blunder affect our natural world, this book will probably be a wise choice. Having spent many of my formative years hiking the trails and fishing the waters of Oregon, I felt quite at home and really enjoyed myself. While I enjoyed both aspects of the book, I found myself pushing through to the parts where Mr. Connors romanticized his personal experiences of life as a lookout. His observations and descriptions of detail were both interesting and educational for me. Not to say that the history lessons were not interesting, because they were, but I preferred to read his words on the experience of living atop a 10,000 foot mountain for 100 plus days a year. I would whole heartedly recommend this book to anyone who can appreciate a good nature read, especially those with a bent toward the southwest.

2023-07-03 11:05