Fires are bigger and faster than they used to be, munching up vast open areas in our part of the world. And, in the case of some fires, burning down chunks of entire communities.
There is general consensus that just putting fires out has contributed to the problem, but the next steps are the focus of considerable debate.
Dominick DellaSala, chief scientist at Wild Heritage and nearly a victim of the Almeda Drive fire, continues to study megafires, and he says the current approach--suppression--is indeed the wrong way to go. So what is the correct way?
We take up the topic in a discussion with DellaSala and Luke Ruediger, the Executive Director of the Applegate Neighborhood Network and a frequent critic of federal forest policy.