Mention the word fire and it is natural to be afraid. Media likes to capitalize on that fear to sell advertising. The logging industry likes to capitalize on that fear to cut down marketable trees. The grazing industry likes to capitalize on that fear to keep marketable grazing animals on the landscape.

Knowing that the cause of many fires is human activity means that we are in the drivers seat. So, when it is hot, why do you need a campfire? Why do we have power-lines strung across windy canyons where they are likely to arc? Why do smokers think that a tossed cigarette won’t start a fire? Why do you pull over in dry grass? And why weld or hunt when fire danger is really high?

Why does the Forest Service only care about merchantable trees that could catch fire? And why when the trees are huge are they cut down and sold leaving only the most flammable smaller trees to act like kindling? Why are cattle and sheep all over the desert helping to create disturbance and spread the seed of highly flammable exotic Mediterranean grasses?

Why do counties approve building of houses and commercial buildings where fire risk is really high? Why aren’t all buildings in California built to withstand fire as they are earthquakes - it seems earthquakes happen every 50 years or so but fires happen every year.

But fire is not all bad, the trees and shrubs that burn become home for a lot of wildlife. The barren fire scarred landscape becomes a landscape of wildflowers in spring. Let’s fear fire enough to prepare for it without destroying nature in the process.

Manage people, not nature.