Wildfire and Fire-Adapted Ecology : How People Created the Current Fire Disasters

Increasing numbers of wild fires have been noted in the past decades as well as increasing intensity and acreage burned. The invasion of wild lands and rural areas by new housing, the recreational industry, hikers, bikers and the destruction of wild life by increased hunting, thinning to reduce competition with commercial agriculture and effects of logging and new logging techniques have driven this increase. The last 400 years of exploitation of the land has created a fire-adapted ecology. Suggestions for reducing the dangerous and expensive consequences are given