Present at the Creation: The 1910 Big Burn and the Formative Days of the U.S. Forest Service

Public Land Law Review , Vol. 32, No. 193, 2011 (reprinted with permission)

Ecology Law Quarterly, Vol. 37, No. 1217, 2010

Lewis & Clark Law School Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2010-22

9 Pages Posted: 14 Jun 2010 Last revised: 24 Nov 2011

See all articles by Michael C. Blumm

Michael C. Blumm

Lewis & Clark College - Lewis & Clark Law School; Lewis & Clark College Paul L Boley Library

Date Written: June 14, 2010

Abstract

This review of Timothy's Egan's 2009 book, "The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt & the Fire That Saved America," lauds Egan's storytelling while questioning the title of his book. Egan tells a gripping tale about the largest wildfire in North America, a 1910 blaze in the Bitterroot Mountains along the largely unroaded Idaho-Montana border that cost a hundred people their lives and burned an area fifty percent larger than Yellowstone National Park. Egan claims that the big wildfire secured the young U.S. Forest Service's role as a public land manager and established conservation as a politically viable policy that encouraged Theodore Roosevelt to attempt to recapture the presidency in 1912. However, at the center of Egan's story is not Roosevelt, but Gifford Pinchot, whom Roosevelt appointed the first chief of the Forest Service in 1905. Pinchot convinced Roosevelt to preserve more public land (outside of Alaska) than any president before or since, and he made the Forest Service into one of the most respected government agencies in twentieth century America. But the Big Burn's legacy also led Pinchot's successors to give priority to fighting public land wildlifes, which damaged the ecology and, ironically, led to larger wildfires. The review suggests that the Pinchot-Roosevelt conservation era produced more public support for environmental protection than ever in American history, and that the political lessons of that era may be useful in a twenty-first century challenged by catastrophic oil spills and global climate change.

Keywords: natural resources law, environmental law, public lands law, legal history, law and politics

JEL Classification: K11, K32, N51, Q23, Q38

Suggested Citation

Blumm, Michael C., Present at the Creation: The 1910 Big Burn and the Formative Days of the U.S. Forest Service (June 14, 2010). Public Land Law Review , Vol. 32, No. 193, 2011 (reprinted with permission), Ecology Law Quarterly, Vol. 37, No. 1217, 2010 , Lewis & Clark Law School Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2010-22, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1624692

Michael C. Blumm (Contact Author)

Lewis & Clark College - Lewis & Clark Law School ( email )

10101 S. Terwilliger Boulevard
Portland, 97219-7762

Lewis & Clark College Paul L Boley Library ( email )

10015 S.W. Terwilliger Blvd.
Portland, OR 97219
United States
503-768-6824 (Phone)
503-768-6701 (Fax)

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