Throughout the history of earth forest fires have burned and extinguish themselves naturally... Until the 20th century when smokey the bear came along and men needing work who had none during the dirty 30s needed a job... One genius way to employ them was hiring them as forest fire fighters... Altering that natural function will always lead to some kind of consequence. Naturally occurring fires cleanse the forest of dead and rotting wood... Without them, that dead and rotting wood dries up and actually creates more fires over time.
“Throughout the history of earth forest fires have burned and extinguish themselves naturally... Until the 20th century when smokey the bear came along and men needing work who had none during the dirty 30s needed a job... One genius way to employ them was hiring them as forest fire fighters... Altering that natural function will always lead to some kind of consequence. Naturally occurring fires cleanse the forest of dead and rotting wood... Without them, that dead and rotting wood dries up and actually creates more fires over time.”
So true. Old photographs taken during the Civil War show open woods where wagons were able to be pulled. Same areas today are choked with vines, briars and bushes, and with trees of all sizes from and inch up to three and four feet in diameter. Walking through many areas requires having a machete for clearing out a trail. A hundred years of built up fuel will have to be dealt with somehow.
As a matter of fact, in the 1800’s, fires in California were fairly common; caused by lightening and in some cases by Indians. Climate change had nothing to do with it!