I would love to just let fires burn themselves out like they did hundreds of years ago, but there are too many man-introduced problems that make this sort of forest management extremely unlikely:

• Man's overreliance on the timber industry
• Man's unnatural planting of the forests during the first half of the 20th century, making for forests that are TOO dense
• Man's desire to live closer to nature by building homes right on treelines

Of course these are only my opinions and if they stand on any shred of fact then it is purely coincidental and unintended.

I mourn for those who died fighting the fires as well as their friends and families.

[ 07-11-2001: Message edited by: Heywood Jablomie ]