The first rule of tinkering is to save all the parts, according to forester, philosopher, and hunter Aldo Leopold. Leopold was thinking about wildfire 50 years ago when he also was questioning his own role in exterminating large predators, wondering how their removal might affect forest ecosystems in the future. Leopold was well ahead of his contemporaries in ecological thought. Like predators, fire cleans and regenerates the systems it touches. A generation later, we’re seeing the dramatic consequences of excluding fire from fire-adapted ecosystems.

Authors: Merrill R. Kaufmann, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fort Collins, COAyn Shlisky, The Nature Conservancy, Boulder, COPeter Marchand, Catamount Center for Geography of the Southern Rockies, Woodland Park, Colorado