Thursday, November 3, 2005; 7–9 pm:  The Culture of Fire on Earth, Stephen J. Pyne, Ph.D., Regents Professor, Arizona State University
Fire and people are inseparable, and together they have remade landscapes across the continents and centuries. As humanity shifted to fossil fuels, biomass is accumulating in many landscapes and atmospheric carbon in threatening climate change. Reconciling the need for some open fire, when the planet is temporarily overcharged with combustion, will force our communities and governments to makes choices. Dr. Pyne will offer examples from Europe, Africa, and Australia, and North America.

Friday, November 4, 2005; 9-11 am:  The Changing Nature of Fire in America, Stephen J. Pyne, Ph.D., Regents Professor, Arizona State University
How did the fire-flushed landscapes of the 1880s shift to the fire-starved ones of today? Amid logging excesses, reckless mining, damaged watersheds, and wildfires that culminated in the Great Fires of 1910, the country became determined to suppress all fires. By the 1960s, the consequences of fire exclusion became apparent, and reformers sought a balanced approach and a reinstatement of wildfire. Today, wildfire management is constrained by exurban development and conflicts about the values of public lands.