The assignment to editor-at-large T. Edward Nickens was to write a how-to manual on building fires in the woods. Simple enough, right? Well, what Nickens turned was anything but simple. There’s wonderful storytelling, history, humor, adventure, inspiration, and, of course, expert advice in this feature—the cover story from the February-March 2017 issue of Field and Stream. I especially liked the closing line to his instructions on how to build a bonfire: Everyone’s watching, so don’t screw it up. Soak a roll of toilet paper in kerosene and tuck it at the base of the tepee fire. You don’t have to light it with a flaming arrow shot across the dark sky. But, then again, you could. And the four short essays he wrote as a companion to “Wild Fires” are simply masterful. —Colin Kearns, editor-in-chief