Reporting on Bush's overturning Clinton-era forest protections, William Booth notes

that there is widespread disagreement among even the most knowledgeable forest experts over how to make the public lands more fire-retardant. Trim a little? Or chainsaw a lot?...A century of clear-cut logging, tree farming and fire suppression have left the forests susceptible because they have allowed massive amounts of "fuel" to build up. A fire that burns along the ground, clearing underbrush, is seen as good. A fire that reaches the crowns of trees, assisted by so-called "ladder fuels" or midsize and densely packed trees, can be catastrophic.

Earlier discussed here and here.