Heather Hansen: Wildfire

With a more complex wildfire environment, wildfires in the West continue to get larger, more destructive and costlier. Today, fire management strategies are more aggressive and sophisticated than ever as they combat longer wildfire seasons. So why the unacceptably high numbers of lives and homes lost and ecosystems damaged? 

In her newest book, “Wildfire in the West,” Heather Hansen takes a look at wildfires through the eyes of wildland firefighters. Spending 18 months with the City of Boulder’s wildland firefighters, Hansen learned what it takes to be a wildland firefighter and how citizens can help turn around the destructive trends in wildfires. She also talks with leading fire scientists, talks about training as a wildland firefighter, and answers the burning question, what’s with all the bacon.

About the Author: 

Heather Hansen is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in many magazines and newspapers from San Francisco to Johannesburg. Before immersing herself in the wildfire world, she wrote Prophets and Moguls, Rangers and Rogues, Bison and Bears which tells the story of conservation in the U.S. and chronicles 100 years of the National Park Service. Hansen experienced her first western wildfire on the day she moved to Boulder in July, 2002. To better understand what it takes to be a wildland firefighter, she trained to become one in 2015.

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