He highlights the ruthless genocide European Americans conducted against Indigenous peoples, and how timber barrons commandeered the Forest Service into protecting their own financial interests. Throughout it all, Thomas considers who bears the cost and who reaps the rewards from the choices we’ve made. “You actually can’t understand fire in California without understanding those histories.”US Forest Service hotshots put their health and safety at risk working in punishing conditions on the fireline. In winter, he took intensive seminars combining history, ecology and political economy to place his experiences in a wider context. This means ensuring a large, well paid workforce with basic health benefits and wage protections, not the outdated, seasonal contract positions the Forest Service still hires under.