The North Rim of the Grand Canyon forest stands are dominated by ponderosa pine, which tends to have a low-severity/high-frequency fire regime. However, occasional high-severity blazes are normal and not mutually exclusive. Photo by George Wuerthner

The recent Los Angeles Times article “How a good fire in the Grand Canyon exploded into a raging inferno” perpetuates a false dichotomy about wildfire.

The basic theme of the article is that there are “good fires” which burn at low severity at frequent intervals, and do not kill trees. By contrast, the “bad” fires, such as the Dragon Bravo blaze that charred the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, burn extensive regions, often killing most of the vegetation, whether trees or shrubs.

This simplistic thinking has led to poor forest policies, and a failure to see the forest through the........

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