[Egregious Philbin]

"I know this country and I have never seen anything like this fire," [Arizona Gov. Jane] Hull said on Sunday. "Mother Nature is saying to Arizona, to the West, that we have to clean up these forests."

I was under the impression that forest fires are Mother Nature's way of cleaning up forests?

[Carry_Okie]

I was under the impression that forest fires are Mother Nature's way of cleaning up forests?

Not after 90 years of fire suppression, successive clearcuts, and suppression of browsing species. Such a fire doesn't clean, it sterilizes. Weeds usually follow first and are often capable of completely dominating the landscape, permanently. After that kind of treatment, we may never see a native forest again.