Pundits and politicians have taken to calling …catastrophic wildfire “the new normal.” But California’s experience in the 21st century is neither new nor abnormal. It is, in fact, the old normal. The devastation unfolding today is how nature manages forests. …Nature deals with morbid overcrowding through drought, disease, pestilence and ultimately catastrophic wildfire. Scientists studying charcoal deposits in California estimate that prehistoric wildfires destroyed between 4.5 million and 11.9 million acres a year…. Our modern sensitivities reel at the devastation of the Camp Fire… Yet in 1910 the “Big Burn” in Idaho and Montana consumed three million acres, wiped out seven towns, and killed 87 among a far smaller and sparser population. …The environmental left blames climate change. Yet this doesn’t explain the dramatic difference between federal lands and private forests that practice scientific forest management. …Ironically, in the name of improving the environment, we have surrendered our forests to a policy of neglect…