A Field Guide to Fire

The Flagstaff Arts Council selected 10 artists and a poet to contribute to an exhibition addressing the role of fire in forest management. In September of 2014 the group visited the North Rim of the Grand Canyon where numerous fire managers, ecologists, and fighters, spoke about the past, present, and potential futures of fire on the Colorado Plateau. David Chorlton was the poet, and A Field Guide to Fire is the collection of poems he wrote. The book also contains charcoal drawings by Julie Comnick, one of the artists. The poems draw on historic as well as contemporary sources to reflect on differing cultural attitudes toward the use of fire in forests, and they address ecology in the age of climate change. The exhibition, Fires of Change, was conceived as a collaboration between science and art. A Field Guide to Fire is a lyrical response, beautifully balanced by visual art.