"Now your trees are very close together, things are stagnated, and you just have tremendous fuel load on the forest floor."
In 1972, we would occasionally let a fire burn, if it was a lightning fire. But most lightning fires, we still went and put it out, even in wilderness areas. In Sycamore Canyon, I was down in there numerous times, hiking in and using an axe to chop down a tree, since it was wilderness. And we'd put it out and hike out. It usually was an all night deal, even with only one snag standing there burning. And now, I think once the rains have started and its lightning season, they let these go. If it gets to be a little bit of a ground fire, it's probably beneficial. People kind of outsmarted themselves with total suppression of fires, and they let huge fuel loads build up on the forest floor. So now you don't have those natural low-intensity fires that burn through every so often and keep things healthy. Now your trees are very close together, things are stagnated, and you just have a tremendous fuel load on the forest floor. I think something needs to be done.
Nineteen seventy-two [1972] was one of the worst fire seasons we had up to that point in time. The ones we're having now are much worse. But I just feel your fuel load continues to increase, and your number of people that are out recreating in the woods, building campfires, possibly leaving them, that stuff is increasing. So you've got more fuel and you've got more chance of it being ignited.