Wildfire in the Wilderness

Alice Kidd is an editor with The New Catalyst editorial collective in
Lillooet, B.C.

We live in a time of transition, many of us with one foot in a world
“old” to us and the other in a new and exciting world. Chris
Czajkowski’s latest offering is a “bridge” story, which takes us
forward to wilderness as it now exists, complete with Internet and air
travel, chopping wood, and carrying water.

Anchored by a humorous recap of her first 20 years in the Nuk Tessli
area (near the southern tip of Tweedsmuir Provincial Park in British
Columbia’s Coast Mountains), this book covers the 2001–04 period,
ending with the wildfire of the title. Czajkowski lives a dual life,
spending spring and fall on the road with book tours, and the rest of
her time in Nuk Tessli. The sharp contrasts between time away and time
at home, and between time with visitors and time alone, are well drawn,
highlighting the many joys of her way of life.

We learn how she meets her needs for food and shelter, transportation,
and communication (storing food is always about bears; shelter about
local materials). We read of hair-raising trips on the ground and in
small planes, her delight in helicopters, and the complicated and
evolving process of staying in touch through snail mail, radio, and
email. We share her anxieties about money and unexpected expenses.

Her writing is lucid and graceful, capturing the rhythms of a
weather-dependent life. Black-and-white drawings echo the vivid imagery
of the writing to capture the characters—animal and human, landscape
and weather—that share her world. A variety of journal entries,
newspaper articles, and email correspondence opens each chapter to good
effect. Several well-placed maps allow the reader a more complete
picture of all the relationships that shape the stories.

She engages the natural world with attention and thoughtful caring. The
story of wildfire was so powerful that my own memories of that smoky,
scary summer surged back. As a rural dweller in a neighbouring region to
the south, I especially value the descriptions of three major topics:
the risks associated with wildfire, the challenges of making a living,
and the changes in wilderness because of the way human affairs affect
wilderness.