Many prescription burns (slash burning) I have worked on were only allowed after the stae or federal officials were reasionably assured by the weatherman that the winds would be blowing the smoke the right way, thus we have another political component in regards to our forest fire fighting policy: If the smoke makes tax paying voters unhappy, try to pretect them from it bothering them.
We all have to suffer a little bit if fires burning out light fuels making things as smokey as the first explorers to this land found it.
Private industry, and local, state, and federal governments also need to stop defering or not doing the vast amount of stewardship work there is to do in forest; much of which involved reducing fuels that are a hundred hours or less, (fuels often are graded this way, and it refers to dry-out time.)
I see everyone taking pot-shots and posturing to hurt everyone else on this issue. In fact, we all own a little of the blame for how we have removed fire from it's rightful place in forest ecosystems, and when the retoric cools off some, maybe we can all put the blame-game aside, roll up our sleeves, and work to make and keep healthy the forest we all love - and fight over so much.
Thanks for the bump.