Thing is, it actually should have been the norm (or close to it) for the last hundred years or so. I just read a great in-depth article about how the west coast ecology is supposed to burn--there are literal plants that have evolved to only sprout after going through a fire season--and we know this, but because 1.) fire suppression is big business and 2.) residents always fight against controlled burns because they make the air a little smoggy for a few days, the fuel surplus is now well beyond control. California burns 20,000 acres a year, when they should be burning a million in order to keep the ecology in balance. That deficit has been building and building, and one way or another, it's all going to burn off eventually.
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