How Indigenous 'cultural burns' can replenish our forests

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This week:

For more than a century, Canadian wildfire suppression has stuck to the hit-it-hard-hit-it-fast motto — and has been highly effective in snuffing out the flames. 

The paradox, said Prof. Lori Daniels, who specializes in wildfire and forest ecology at the University of British Columbia, is that we've been so good at putting out every fire possible that it has led to overly dense forests and a buildup of burnable material like branches and dry vegetation. 

If sparked in the summer heat, these "ladder fuels" piggyback the flames up tree trunks and engulf the crown, resulting in high-intensity fires like those in Western Canada this year.

But overdrive isn't fire's only speed. In fact, when burning in a lower gear, the environmental benefits of fires in forested areas can be bountiful.

"If you want to cleanse the land, if you want to give back to the land, you burn it," said Daniels.