The perverse policies that fuel wildfires

Gradually, it became clear that fire suppression was wrecking many of the forests it was intended to save. (Among the trees whose seeds require fire to germinate are giant sequoias.) These days, O’Connor writes, the Forest Service likes to boast that it oversees the country’s biggest prescribed-fire program, which burns almost 1.5 million acres a year. But this isn’t nearly enough to make up for what’s become known as the “fire deficit.”