Humans, forests, and fire with author Jeff Forester

EVENT INFO:

What effect do humans and fire have on forests? Author Jeff Forester gives a program about his book “The Forest for the Trees: How Humans Shaped the Northwoods.” This history of human relationship with the land starting with native Americans through the pioneering logging, the rise of industrial logging, creation of the United States Forest Service and finally the creation of a designated wilderness is visible in Minnesota. So to the story of wildfire is told in full in Minnesota, from tribal fire regimes to reduce fire intensity and provide habitat for blueberries and wildlife, through catastrophic fires that killed hundreds in an afternoon, to the near eradication of fire for the first time since the last ice age, to fire reasserting itself on the landscape. By examining the Minnesota’s forests we can see the full history of how humans shaped the northwoods. Jeff Forester is a freelance writer whose work has been published in Whole Earth Review, Rolling Stone, Oregon Quarterly, and Timberline. He is executive director of a nonprofit organization and an instructor at Concordia University in St. Paul.