Presenter: Augustine Beard
Faculty Mentor: Mark Carey
Presentation Type: Oral
Primary Research Area: Humanities
Major: History
Fire plays a vital role in the ecology of the Pacific Northwest. However, throughout most of the twentieth century, the National Forest Service promoted a strict policy of fire suppression that has disrupted the cyclical nature of fires and lead to the growth of “megafires” in the past few decades. For the most part, the National Forest Service and the timber industry both financially benefited from the suppression policies. While historians have discussed the relation between scientists, the timber and ranching industries, and the state, there has been little analysis of public perception as it relates to fire policy and the actors involved. Groups and campaigns like the Keep Oregon Green Association and Smokey Bear encompassed a broad range of representatives including environmentalists, politicians, private loggers, and scholars, developing quasi-state entities that emphasized the importance of timber capital and national security above all else. Using various sources such as records of the Keep Oregon Green Association, OSU Forestry School archives, and World War II propaganda posters, I argue that the wide range of organizers promoting a uniform conception of fire disallowed any other. Fire prevention campaigns and the extreme vilification of fire in the public eye were vital to developing the environmental narrative that ensured an unquestioned fire suppression policy for so long.