Fighting fire. I’ve said this phrase countless times. I worked as a wildland firefighter but never stopped to consider the phrase fighting fire. Since the late 1800’s wildfires, or any agricultural fires in the United States, have been perceived as destructive. Few explorers who came west were able to see fires for what they were- part of the natural environment, and integral to ecological health. When the Forest Service was established it was done so in a climate of “timber famine.” In some ways the concept of timber famine was helpful. Conservationists used the fear of excessive logging to preserve parcels of land (although many of those parcels aren’t necessarily preserved for anything but logging) and regulate the logging industry. The logging industry lobbied for more protection from wildland fire. Thus, the Forest Service, through strong lobbying from logging magnates and pro-logging organizations, became an agency whose focus on suppressing wildland fire veered into obsessive.
What you advocate has been federal policy for over thirty years.
Hi! Can you cite your source, please? I'd love to know where you're getting your information from.