With Extreme Fires Burning, Forest Service Stops 'Good Fires' Too
Facing record-breaking dry conditions across the West, the U.S. Forest Service announced it will aggressively put out wildfires this summer. As a result, the agency's use of "good fire," the lower-intensity blazes that clear out overgrown forests, will also stop.
With thousands of firefighting personnel battling extreme blazes, federal officials say no one can be spared for fire prevention work. But some fire scientists worry that the blanket rule takes away the most important tools foresters have to reduce future wildfire risk, even in parts of the country where it may be safe to use them.
"It's a tough decision, I think, because politically, there's a lot of pressure to put every single fire out," says Crystal Kolden, fire scientist at the University of California, Merced. "The problem is
