Most organizational histories are written from the top down and focus on important agency leaders and on policy, direction, mistakes and successes. However, this method fails to provide a sense of the nuts-and-bolts difficulties of accomplishing the work on the ground. This history provides a regional Forest Service viewpoint of ground level fire control work and describes how nationally important policy and direction emerged from California (Forest Service Region 5). The Forest Service during this era was highly decentralized, with considerable authority and responsibility delegated to forest supervisors, district rangers and even district staff and field supervisors. Every employee was expected to respond to a fire emergency.
This book also places the story of fire control in California in the context of national and world events. The Forest Service and fire control were not immune to them -- in fact, these events often dictated the course of fire control at the regional and local levels. In the final analysis, it was the way Forest Service employees and family members responded to these events that made a difference. More than any other resource activity, fire control was about what happened on the ground.
The Region 5 fire organization evolved over fifty years of trial and error until 1955, when it had reached a high level of effectiveness and efficiency. Many notable fires are described, some in detail, to illustrate the path by which this effectiveness was earned, showing the ups and downs along the way.
- 442 Pages; 9 Maps; 37 Historical Photos; index
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