Fires will help the health of Southwestern forests

We have chosen to live in a fire-prone landscape. Unfortunately, we humans have been poor stewards of the forest for the past couple hundred years because we excluded fire. Ensuring that our forests continue to persist and are not killed by high-severity wildfires means we need to support forest managers restoring regular burning to the forest. That means that periodically, we will have to deal with some smoke. However, a smokey morning because smoke settles over Santa Fe when the temperature drops at night is far better than being stuck in your house for several months because the acrid air from out-of-control wildfires could kill you.