Preventing Forest Fires: Bring Back The Buffalo

The assumption that forest fires are a part of a "natural cycle" is partly wrong, says Michael Lind, and offers a solution for preventing forest fires that endanger homes and lives.

1 minute read

August 3, 2001, 6:00 AM PDT

By Abhijeet Chavan @http://twitter.com/legalaidtech


"Most of us assume that these giant conflagrations, often started by lightning, are a normal part of the natural cycle. That's partly true -- and partly wrong.The worst fires tend to occur where enormous amounts of dead tinder have accumulated in thick stands of trees. In much of the American West, neither the trees nor the tinder are "natural." They are there because something else is missing. That something is the buffalo....It is time to stop the century-long conversion of former buffalo country to forest -- and of that forest into firewood."

Thanks to Abhijeet Chavan

Wednesday, August 1, 2001 in National Geographic

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