Download or read book Prairie Fire written by Julie Courtwright and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 2023-01-13 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prairie fires have always been a spectacular and dangerous part of the Great Plains. Nineteenth-century settlers sometimes lost their lives to uncontrolled blazes, and today ranchers such as those in the Flint Hills of Kansas manage the grasslands through controlled burning. Even small fires, overlooked by history, changed lives-destroyed someone's property, threatened someone's safety, or simply made someone's breath catch because of their astounding beauty. Julie Courtwright, who was born and raised in the tallgrass prairie of Butler County, Kansas, knows prairie fires well. In this first comprehensive environmental history of her subject, Courtwright vividly recounts how fire-setting it, fighting it, watching it, fearing it-has bound Plains people to each other and to the prairies themselves for centuries. She traces the history of both natural and intentional fires from Native American practices to the current use of controlled burns as an effective land management tool, along the way sharing the personal accounts of people whose lives have been touched by fire. The book ranges from Texas to the Dakotas and from the 1500s to modern times. It tells how Native Americans learned how to replicate the effects of natural lightning fires, thus maintaining the prairie ecosystem. Native peoples fired the prairie to aid in the hunt, and also as a weapon in war. White settlers learned from them that burns renewed the grasslands for grazing; but as more towns developed, settlers began to suppress fires-now viewed as a threat to their property and safety. Fire suppression had as dramatic an environmental impact as fire application. Suppression allowed the growth of water-wasting trees and caused a thick growth of old grass to build up over time, creating a dangerous environment for accidental fires. Courtwright calls on a wide range of sources: diary entries and oral histories from survivors, colorful newspaper accounts, military weather records, and artifacts of popular culture from Gene Autry stories to country song lyrics to Little House on the Prairie. Through this multiplicity of voices, she shows us how prairie fires have always been a significant part of the Great Plains experience-and how each fire that burned across the prairies over hundreds of years is part of someone's life story. By unfolding these personal narratives while looking at the bigger environmental picture, Courtwright blends poetic prose with careful scholarship to fashion a thoughtful paean to prairie fire. It will enlighten environmental and Western historians and renew a sense of wonder in the people of the Plains.
Download or read book The Prairies on Fire written by Richard D. Schwartz and published by . This book was released on 2010-10-07 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An engaging narrative history of the debates that introduced Abraham Lincoln to the American public and taught him a lasting lesson: that there are worse things than losing an election.
Download or read book Prairie Fires written by Caroline Fraser and published by Metropolitan Books. This book was released on 2017-11-21 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR The first comprehensive historical biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder, the beloved author of the Little House on the Prairie books Millions of readers of Little House on the Prairie believe they know Laura Ingalls—the pioneer girl who survived blizzards and near-starvation on the Great Plains, and the woman who wrote the famous autobiographical books. But the true saga of her life has never been fully told. Now, drawing on unpublished manuscripts, letters, diaries, and land and financial records, Caroline Fraser—the editor of the Library of America edition of the Little House series—masterfully fills in the gaps in Wilder’s biography. Revealing the grown-up story behind the most influential childhood epic of pioneer life, she also chronicles Wilder's tumultuous relationship with her journalist daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, setting the record straight regarding charges of ghostwriting that have swirled around the books. The Little House books, for all the hardships they describe, are paeans to the pioneer spirit, portraying it as triumphant against all odds. But Wilder’s real life was harder and grittier than that, a story of relentless struggle, rootlessness, and poverty. It was only in her sixties, after losing nearly everything in the Great Depression, that she turned to children’s books, recasting her hardscrabble childhood as a celebratory vision of homesteading—and achieving fame and fortune in the process, in one of the most astonishing rags-to-riches episodes in American letters. Spanning nearly a century of epochal change, from the Indian Wars to the Dust Bowl, Wilder’s dramatic life provides a unique perspective on American history and our national mythology of self-reliance. With fresh insights and new discoveries, Prairie Fires reveals the complex woman whose classic stories grip us to this day.
Download or read book Fire in North American Tallgrass Prairies written by Scott L. Collins and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 1990 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on papers presented at a 1987 symposium, "Fire in North American Grasslands," cosponsored by the Ecological Society of America and the Botanical Society of America, this book represents an important contribution to key unanswered questions concerning the role of fire in grassland ecosystems: How often did fires occur in the past? Were they primarily natural or caused by humans? At what time of year did grasslands normally burn? How should fire be used as a management tool? What constitutes a proper prescribed burning regime both with and without grazing?
Download or read book Awful Splendour written by Stephen J. Pyne and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2011-11-01 with total page 581 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fire is a defining element in Canadian land and life. With few exceptions, Canada's forests and prairies have evolved with fire. Its peoples have exploited fire and sought to protect themselves from its excesses, and since Confederation, the country has devised various institutions to connect fire and society. The choices Canadians have made says a great deal about their national character. Awful Splendour narrates the history of this grand saga. It will interest geographers, historians, and members of the fire community.
Download or read book Prairie Fire written by William W. Johnstone and published by Pinnacle. This book was released on 2022-01-25 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When outlaws start setting fires to distract the locals while they rob their banks and loot their towns, Luke Jensen, as their fiery reign rages out of control, infiltrates the gang, fighting fire with gunfire.
Download or read book Prairie Fire written by Bob Beal and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Ecology and Management of Prairies in the Central United States written by Chris Helzer and published by University of Iowa Press. This book was released on 2009-05 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most prairies exist today as fragmented landscapes, making thoughtful and vigilant management ever more important. Intended for landowners and managers dedicated to understanding and nurturing their prairies as well as farmers, ranchers, conservationists, and all those with a strong interest in grasslands, ecologist Chris Helzer’s readable and practical manual educates prairie owners and managers about grassland ecology and gives them guidelines for keeping prairies diverse, vigorous, and viable. Chapters in the first section, "Prairie Ecology," describe prairie plants and the communities they live in, the ways in which disturbance modifies plant communities, the animal and plant inhabitants that are key to prairie survival, and the importance of diversity within plant and animal communities. Chapters in the second section, "Prairie Management," explore the adaptive management process as well as guiding principles for designing management strategies, examples of successful management systems such as fire and grazing, guidance for dealing with birds and other species that have particular habitat requirements and with the invasive species that have become the most serious threat that prairie managers have to deal with, and general techniques for prairie restoration. Following the conclusion and a forward-thinking note on climate change, eight appendixes provide more information on grazing, prescribed fire, and invasive species as well as bibliographic notes, references, and national and state organizations with expertise in prairie management. Grasslands can be found throughout much of North America, and the ideas and strategies in this book apply to most of them, particularly tallgrass and mixed-grass prairies in eastern North Dakota, eastern South Dakota, eastern Nebraska, eastern Kansas, eastern Oklahoma, northwestern Missouri, northern Illinois, northwestern Indiana, Iowa, southwestern Wisconsin, and southwestern Minnesota. By presenting all the factors that promote biological diversity and thus enhance prairie communities, then incorporating these factors into a set of clear-sighted management practices, The Ecology and Management of Prairies in the Central United States presents the tools necessary to ensure that grasslands are managed in the purposeful ways essential to the continued health and survival of prairie communities.
Download or read book Forgotten Fires written by Omer Call Stewart and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A common stereotype about American Indians is that for centuries they lived in static harmony with nature, in a pristine wilderness that remained unchanged until European colonization. Omer C. Stewart was one of the first anthropologists to recognize that Native Americans made significant impact across a wide range of environments. Most important, they regularly used fire to manage plant communities and associated animal species through varied and localized habitat burning. In Forgotten Fires, editors Henry T. Lewis and M. Kat Anderson present Stewart's original research and insights, written in the 1950s yet still provocative today. Significant portions of Stewart's text have not been available until now, and Lewis and Anderson set Stewart's findings in the context of current knowledge about Native hunter-gatherers and their uses of fire.
Download or read book Laura Ingalls Wilder written by William Anderson and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2007-01-02 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From her pioneer days on the prairie to her golden years with her husband, Almanzo, and their daughter, Rose, Laura Ingalls Wilder has become a friend to all who have read about her adventures. This behind-the-scenes account chronicles the real events in Laura's life that inspired her to write her stories and also describes her life after the last Little House book ends.
Download or read book How to Manage Small Prairie Fires written by Wayne R. Pauly and published by . This book was released on 1985 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book An Ocean Of Fire written by Katrina R.W. and published by FriesenPress. This book was released on 2019-05-16 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eldene is a contemplative teen who has a natural ability to control fire. She apprentices with the mysterious wizard Martin and encounters many wonders in the fantasy world of Proterra, including sea serpents, a dragon and a giant snail. Dark magic embodied by evil unicorns is spreading from the elven kingdom of Goldmyst. Eldene and Martin explore themes of life, death, nature and identity along their adventure that carries them into a new era.
Download or read book Fire Native Peoples and the Natural Landscape written by Thomas Vale and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2013-04-16 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For nearly two centuries, the creation myth for the United States imagined European settlers arriving on the shores of a vast, uncharted wilderness. Over the last two decades, however, a contrary vision has emerged, one which sees the country's roots not in a state of "pristine" nature but rather in a "human-modified landscape" over which native peoples exerted vast control. Fire, Native Peoples, and the Natural Landscape seeks a middle ground between those conflicting paradigms, offering a critical, research-based assessment of the role of Native Americans in modifying the landscapes of pre-European America. Contributors focus on the western United States and look at the question of fire regimes, the single human impact which could have altered the environment at a broad, landscape scale, and which could have been important in almost any part of the West. Each of the seven chapters is written by a different author about a different subregion of the West, evaluating the question of whether the fire regimes extant at the time of European contact were the product of natural factors or whether ignitions by Native Americans fundamentally changed those regimes. An introductory essay offers context for the regional chapters, and a concluding section compares results from the various regions and highlights patterns both common to the West as a whole and distinctive for various parts of the western states. The final section also relates the findings to policy questions concerning the management of natural areas, particularly on federal lands, and of the "naturalness" of the pre-European western landscape.
Download or read book Indians Fire and the Land in the Pacific Northwest written by Robert Boyd and published by Corvallis, Or. : Oregon State University Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Together, these writings also offer historical perspective on the contemporary debate over prescribed burning on public lands."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book A Tour on the Prairies written by Washington Irving and published by London : J. Murray. This book was released on 1835 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Account of an expedition in Oct. and Nov. 1832 through a part of the unorganized Indian country now the state of Oklahoma.
Download or read book The Prairie Fire written by Marilynn Reynolds and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A young boy's heroic efforts help save his family's prairie home. Beautiful pencil drawings depict this story of the early prairie years.
Download or read book The Tallgrass Prairie Center Guide to Prairie Restoration in the Upper Midwest written by Daryl Smith and published by University of Iowa Press. This book was released on 2010-04-15 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This manual, by four of the most knowledgeable prairie restorationists in the Upper Midwest, brings together absolutely everything that anyone, regardless of background, needs to know for proper tallgrass prairie restoration. In addition to chapters on everything from planning to implementing to managing a prairie, chapters on native seed production and restoring prairies in public spaces and along roadsides cover all that is necessary for successful prairie restorations. This book is an absolute must for anyone in the business of prairie restoration as well as a great read for any prairie enthusiast." -- Robert H. Mohlenbrock, distinguished professor emeritus of botany, Southern Illinois University --Book Jacket.
