Dale Bosworth

Jerry Williams

SANTA FE, N.M. — It’s not the way we fight wildfires in the West that’s the problem. The problem is the way we manage our fire-dependent forests. …What can’t be ignored is that these unprecedented wildfires tell us we need a much better land-management strategy. …We need to be exploring more imaginative approaches. Protection of human communities ultimately matters most, but sometimes we are simply unable to save homes. …Neither can managers deal with the compounding effects of climate change, deteriorating forest conditions and uncontrolled residential development at the wildland-urban interface. The West remains tethered to an unworkable protection strategy that is stalled at a dangerous impasse, while costs, losses, damages and deaths all keep mounting.