It is nearly universally believed that a wildfire is the enemy to be fought with every resource imaginable. The budget for fighting fires in the west is in the millions of dollars every year. Fires, like the one above on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, appear to destroy the forest for a hundred years. But look, what is wrong with this picture? First of all, the trees have all burned, clear to the top. All of the trees are dead. But what is more important, the trees are very closely spaced and all about the same age. There are almost no older trees in this picture. This is a classic view of the end product of a hundred years of fire suppression.
What would happen if the naturally caused fires, those that did not threaten any human structures, were allowed to burn whenever and where ever they started? As is stated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, "Decades of fire suppression are resulting in more catastrophic wild fires." Obviously, the solution is not as simple as letting fires burn, but the impact of many of the more damaging fires, like the one above, can be substantially lessened through more modern fire suppression attitudes.
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