Environmental reporter speaking at NIC Tuesday

The 1988 forest fires in Yellowstone National Park scorched more than 1 million acres and raised a national debate over whether fires should be suppressed or allowed to run their natural course.

Rocky Barker, a seasoned environmental reporter, will discuss fire management based on his book “Scorched Earth: How the Fires of Yellowstone Changed America” (Island Press) during a presentation at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Molstead Library’s Todd Hall at North Idaho College.

“Scorched Earth” takes readers from the heat of the flames to their origins more than a century before, digging back in time to reveal both the history of Yellowstone and the history of firefighting in the American West. In the book, Barker examines federal policy and whether it aided the potential for such natural catastrophes.

Barker is the environmental writer for the Idaho Statesman newspaper in Boise, and his columns have been syndicated in newspapers nationwide. He is also the author of the book “Saving All the Parts: Reconciling Economics and the Endangered Species Act” (Island Press).

The presentation is free and open to the public.