After more than a generation of Smokey the Bear-inspired fire suppression, forest managers in the United States are beginning to turn to ancient practices Indigenous people used for thousands of years.
Seeing all fire as evil can largely be traced to a timber industry intent on “protecting” our forests as massive profit centers.
Small, manageable fires can do wonders for the health of diverse forests and grasslands.
As human-caused climate change impacts the planet and wildfires become more frequent and extreme, now would be a great time to use all the tools in our toolkit to protect our forests.