This year’s One Book One Community choice focuses on the 2016 wildfire that hit the town of Fort McMurray in Alberta Canada forcing some 90,000 people to evacuate their homes on short notice.
Summit County Library Director Dan Compton said the book was suggested to the One Book committee, who agreed it was the right one to read this year.
“These fires are getting more and more commonplace, even as we've seen here in our own community, like with Pinebrook a few years ago,” Compton said. “With the Parleys Canyon fire, it forced about 8,000 people to evacuate their homes, and then last year, we had that Yellow Lake fire that was in Wasatch County that burned about 33,000 acres. So, these are some issues that we on the committee felt were really important to address and have the community discuss.
Valliant will be in Park City on July 29, at 7 p.m. at the Jim Santy Auditorium at the Park City Library to talk about his book with the community.
Leading up to his visit, a number of events will happen this month starting Wednesday, June 4, at 2 p.m. in the Park City Library Community Room with a presentation by University of Utah Professor William Anderegg.
“Professor Andregg will be speaking about the title of the talk is “Illuminating the Future of Earth's Forests under Climate Change,” he said. “So, Professor Andregg is with the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Utah. He's a world-renowned climate scientist and director of the Wilk Center for Climate Science and Policy. So that should be interesting.”
On Tuesday, June 10, Basin Recreation Open Space Supervisor Maddie Nelson will discuss fire resilient landscaping for safer spaces. The event is also in the library’s Community Room and starts at 5 p.m.
On Saturday, June 28, in the Park City Chamber Information Center parking lot there will be an event for the whole family that runs from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
“They're going to have a big fire truck there. We'll have the book mobile there. And a lot of entities and organizations will be there talking about safety," Compton said. "Kids can come. It's a family-friendly event. They'll have like a bike safety, a bike Derby, free face painting, food trucks, all that kind of stuff there. So, that'll just be a good way for kids, especially to get introduced to safety with fire and things like that.”
Another Park City Library event is set for Monday, June 30, at 6 p.m.
“The presenter is Jay Bradley Washa. He is an assistant professor of wildland science at Utah State University. He also is a wildland firefighter. We actually have a backup date for his program just in case he gets called out to fight a fire this summer," Compton said. "But the title of his program is 'Learning to Live with Wildland Fire on the Wasatch Back.' So, he's just going to be looking at what's addressed in the book, and then also our what we deal with here in this community.”
All Summit County and Park City libraries have extra copies of “Fire Weather” on hand for check out. Digital book or audio books fans can check out the book from the online library, Libby, without any waiting time.
