Larry Caldwell wrote in message k.net...
There is an interesting site on wildfires at

http://library.thinkquest.org/C01191...sh/index.shtml

According to the historical fires section, before Europeans settled North
America, 13 million acres a year burned. Compare that to the 8.4 million
acres burned in the 2000 fire season and 6.5 million acres in 2002.

That would include grasslands, sagebrush and prairies, in addition to
all the fires that were purposely set by American Indians. Much of
those wildfires only burned the flashy fuels and left the forests in
place. Of course, there was always that catastrophic component in some
of the non-ponderosa pine forests. We've just "helped" it along a bit
with high-grading, species conversions and fuel loading. I saw one
area just outside the western boundry of Yosemite that has burned 13
times in the last 100 years. Talk about a lightning rod?!?!

Larry, forest sculptor