Once again, my home is on fire.

[Warpy]

22. The west needs to burn

Pinion seeds need fire to burst open the cones so they can germinate. New growth needs to be able to replace old growth. For decades, people didn't understand this and suppressed normal, low level fires. That's why were having the devastating crown fires now. Smokey the Bear misread the country.

That doesn't help much when it's your part that's on fire. Even if your house survives, the world outside goes from green to black and grey for a few years until that new growth starts to pop up in earnest.

Around my part, the worst has been in Los Alamos. So much fuel in the form of dead wood had built up that a controlled burn got completely out of control with a change in the weather. The Forest Service didn't learn much--it's still illegal to pick up dead wood in national forests for firewood.