Discover 'Fire In The Hills: A History of Rural Firefighting', an essential read for anyone interested in New Zealand's unique environmental history and rural firefighting practices. Authored by Helen Beaglehole, this compelling 324-page paperback uncovers how three centuries of land management and burning practices have shaped the landscape and legislation in New Zealand. From the Maori's extensive burning of one-third of the ground cover over 600 years to the reckless fire practices of European settlers that devastated farmland and communities, this book details the evolution of our fire management culture. Beaglehole presents the alarming consequences of unregulated burn-offs, which often escalated into uncontrollable blazes, affecting both rural and urban areas. With rich historical context, she expertly discusses the transition to a more regulated approach with the 1921 fire legislation, which laid the groundwork for contemporary wildfire management policies. The book delves into the public education campaigns aimed at awareness and responsible burning, transforming how communities view fire. Furthermore, the advent of advanced firefighting technologies and fire behavior understanding is documented, showcasing the brave efforts of early Forest Service employees who became the backbone of rural firefighting in New Zealand. This book is a vital contribution to understanding the past and present of firefighting techniques and environmental stewardship in New Zealand.

CONDITION: Brand New

Pages: 324
Bind: paperback
Author: Helen Beaglehole Publisher: Canterbury University Press
Publication Date: 01-07-2012

Over six to seven hundred years, Maori burned about one third of New Zealand’s ground cover. In the following 70 years, and at a devastating rate, European settlers burned about another third as they cleared and ‘improved’ the land. All too frequently, burn-offs became uncontrollable conflagrations that swept through thousands of hectares, destroying cattle, fences, homes and livelihoods, and burning mills and much-needed timber. Townsfolk, blanketed in dense, acrid smoke needed lights at midday; ships, unable to pick up landmarks, sat marooned in harbour – yet the burning, as in other frontier societies, remained unabated and largely unquestioned. It is against that background that Helen Beaglehole sets the fascinating and previously unexplored history of how settlers’ random and careless burning led, in 1921, to legislation that still underpins New Zealand’s official policy on wildfire. She explores the huge public education campaign that sought to convince all sectors of the public that mindless burning had to be restrained, and traces how increasingly sophisticated fire-fighting technologies, coupled with developing knowledge of weather and fire behaviour, were used to prevent, contain and extinguish fire. Finally she looks at the early Forest Service employees who in effect became the nation’s first rural firefighters, their skills honed in the vast controlled burns of the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, and describes the regime established after the Service’s demi