Bee, what you describe as the "new" school of forest management is anything but. It is how the forest managed itself for millenia, until the last hundred years, when we developed the technology and the desire to "overcome" natural processes. The result is huge accumulations of fuel that create unbelievably hot and large fires, that are absolutely unstoppable.
This reminds me of a show I heard on radio a week or so ago, about a book "The Big Burn", by Timothy Egan. It tells the dramatic story of the largest forest fire in American history, in 1910. That first in the Northwestern United States consumed three million acres in two days. It burned through eastern Washington, northern Idaho and western Montana, creating panicked evacuations.
That is the size of Connecticut, in TWO days. While telling the story of the fire, Egan's book tells the political story of how the fire paradoxically saved the national forests and changed fire policy.
By comparison, the Station Fire near LA last year, the largest in LA history, was 161,000 acres, and took TWO MONTHS to burn. lets say that again: 3 million acres in 2 days.
you can either hear the story, or read it here:
The Big Burn
