About Stephen Pyne became interested in fire as a result of 15 seasons on a fire crew, the North Rim Longshots, at Grand Canyon National Park.  He has written a gamut of fire-themed books, among them national fire histories for America, Australia, Canada, Europe (including Russia), Mexico (pending), and the Earth overall, culminating in The Pyrocene: How We Created an Age of Fire, and What Happens Next.  Other works include How the Canyon Became Grand, The Ice: A Journey to Antarctica, Voyager, and The Great Ages of Discovery: How Western Civilization Learned About a Wider World.  Presently, he is a writer, urban farmer, and emeritus professor at Arizona State University. Stephen holds a BA in English from Stanford University, and an MA and PHD in American Civilization from the University of Texas, Austin. He is currently writing a fire history of Mexico. Topics * What if Bison could start fires? * How humans created the age of fire. * In the beginning there was lightning. (Or was it fuel?) * When did humanity really start turning on the afterburners on fire and climate change? * How human use of fire affects the oceans. * Good wildfires vs bad wildfires. * The illusion that we have control over large, intense fires. * The wildland/urban fire relationship at the center of all fire policy and mistakes. * Dealing with the huge fire deficit on wild landscapes. Extra Credit * Read Stephen’s interview in Biohabitats Leaf Litter National Interagency Fire Center Wildfire Today: useful source of fire community news Joint Fire Science Program: good source of current research and link to regional fire science exchanges Check out the entire issue of Leaf Litter, The Biohabitats newsletter:   “We didn’t start the fire It was always burning Since the world’s been turning We didn’t start the fire No, we didn’t light it But we tried to fight it” ~Billy Joel