It did and it does work. But nature needs a helping hand starting the necessary fires. Otherwise there will be bad luck (no lightning) and fuel will build up too much. Also logging has its place including private ownership and supervised leasing of federal lands. Nearer to the towns they need to do more grazing. If they clearcut they will have to replant and manage (e.g. mow) that area for a decade or so until the trees are tall enough to withstand low intensity fire.
There are a lot of reasonble ideas for managing forests that will work. But California used none of them. Instead they neglected their forests. Furthermore they tied the hands of federal land managers with air quality laws forcing federal land managers to extinguish natural fires that should have been left alone. CARB iand the Butte county AQ board have blood on their hands. Everything they say now is just a distraction. In their zeal to limit PM 2.5 for "health" reasons, they killed 100 people or more.
You keep saying this but I have yet to see one affected landowner blame this on their inability to burn based on air quality.
The Butte County restrictions are really prompted by agricultural burning and absolutely necessary.
There are even explicit exemptions for burning to manage fire danger.