Editor's note:

Few scientists have written with more authority on the subject of wildfire in dry site Intermountain Forests than Dr. Steve Arno, who we first interviewed for Evergreen magazine more than a decade ago when he was still a working in research at the Forest Service's Intermountain Fire Sciences Laboratory in Missoula, Montana. We found him to be such a remarkably interesting - and passionate - source of information concerning wildfire and restoration forestry that we recently asked him to submit some of his writings for posting on our website.

Dr. Arno earned his PhD in forest ecology in 1970. He helped develop the Forest Service's habitat type land conservation system and also did some very impressive work in thinning and prescribed fire in the historic Lick Creek area south of Missoula.

Steve Arno grew up in western Washington, in the shadow of great Douglas-fir forests. He developed an early interest in the resiliency of forests and decided to pursue a career in forest ecology. He is the co-author of two fine books, Mimicking Nature's Fire, which he wrote with Carl Fiedler, a fine University of Montana fire ecologist [who we have also interviewed many times] and Flames in Our Forest: Disaster or Renewal, which he wrote with Stephen Allison-Bunnell, a Missoula science writer. Both books were published by Island Press.

Dr. Arno - among others - encouraged our early interest in forest restoration - the use of prescribed [intentionally set] fire and thinning as tools for reducing the increasing risk of catastrophic, stand-replacing wildfire in the West's great federally owned forests. Over the years since we first met Steve, we've traveled thousands of miles across the west to photograph and study the ecological decline of western federal forests. You can read our reports in the "Best of Evergreen" section. Click on the tool bar at the top of this page and look for Evergreen covers featuring wildfire photographs.

Click below to read the articles Steve sent us, plus a short review of his latest book, Northwest Trees. It's an excellent source for anyone wanting to know more about the region's trees.

Arno: Wildfire #1

Arno: Wildfire #2

Arno: Wildfire #3

Arno: Wildfire #4