BY BOBBY HALTON
A good friend of mine and a fire zone management specialist from the state of Montana said in 1984, "Fire is a fundamental part of the forest ecosystem, but Smokey™ Bear and Bambi and all that have created this idea that fire is bad." What E.M. "Sonny" Stiger, author of The Sleeping Giant Awakens, was referring to is the fact that the U.S. Forest Service has, since 1910, used fire suppression campaigns featuring Smokey™ Bear and Bambi to educate the public on the need to help stop forest fires. The goal of the fire service for many decades was to eliminate fire. Tragically, it was incredibly effective in its goal. Unfortunately, fire is a part of nature, and nature has its own laws and its own ways of making things right.
The law of unintended consequences is this: "Actions of people and especially of government and government agencies always have effects that are unanticipated or unintended." We have all heard the old adage that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. People do things with the best of intentions, never dreaming that their goal might be exactly the wrong thing in the long run. We see this quite often as we look back in history. Today, wildland firefighters are experiencing a form of hell on earth as they battle against incredible wildfires across the Midwest, Northwest, and Southwest.
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