-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 > What happened to Smoky the Bear? "Only you can prevent forest > fires" and 50 years later the forest became so full of underbrush > that the fires are 100 times larger! (my estimate, and my opinion, > please don't bother arguing this) > Giles, Sorry to argue this ;) but I think the change may have come when someone realised that the occasional forest fire is part of the natural cycle, and as with almost all natural cycles, impeding it is to ask for trouble somewhere. There are some trees and shrubs that will only grow after a fire. And, in old growth forests, where humans are stopping fires, that process can never occur. My memory of this is very hazy, and possibly inaccurate on several counts. However, I remember that there was once an instance of a large park (I forget where, but I think it was in the US) where the park rangers refused to let firefighters into the park. There is one quote that I do remember distinctly: News reporter: "But what about all the animals" Park spokesman: "They stampede." Just another bit of light on an interesting subject. I think that in general, impeding nature is to invite disaster. How many movies have the old dam somewhere bursting and wiping out everything downstream? Nature gets ticked off every so often. If nature says let it burn, by all means, let it burn. Now, when it starts to come close to a city, village etc. That's a different story. In the example I cited above, I believe that the firefighters camped around the edges of the park to shut down any fire that started to move out of the park. - --Brendan -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGPfreeware 6.5.8 for non-commercial use iQA/AwUBPWUOlwVk8xtQuK+BEQIOgACgxBOaPeJpPcAqgeSMrHhl4GERNmQAn0r4 0yD7JaRElKt/L8NUVwVdp3jr =3maY -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.