Good point and I may be wrong, after all I was 6 years old. It just seems to me that we dont even manage the small acres correctly, and we are just coming around to a better management system
I just returned from Yosemite and they have a controlled burn program that has been ongoing since 1971. This seems to be focused on the roadside and populated areas which I assume is an attempt to minimize the damage caused by the “It’s OK to toss your cigarette out the car window” crowd. In addition they conduct controlled burns of those forest areas where the big redwoods grow.
But they still have forest fires in the Yosemite area including one just last week.