Early in its tenure, the U.S. Forest Service took a hardline stance on wildfires: prevention. And thus Smokey Bear was born. …While this public relations campaign is still popular today —  the attitude toward suppressing all fires has changed. Scientists have learned that fire is good for forests, to a certain extent. But, in May 2022, the U.S. Forest Service paused and began to review its prescribed fire program in response to several prescribed burns escaping and causing damaging wildfires in other parts of the U.S. Before then, Bighorn National Forest fire management officer Jon Warder said, crews purposefully burned up to 2,000 acres per year in the forest. …The practice is borrowed from Native American tribes who first inhabited the lands that are now national forests or parks. According to the National Park Service, “cultural burning” refers to the Indigenous practice of “the intentional lighting of smaller, controlled fires…