This is my understanding from what I’ve learned…….There were large expanses of the Southeast from South Carolina all the way to east Texas that were dominated by longleaf pine ecosystems which are fire dependent systems. There was without a doubt a fire component to the natural system. No argument there…..My opinion though is that we have taken that fact and used it to create a bastardized form of it that doesn’t use fire in the same manner as the natural system did. The timing is off and the intensity of burns are off as well. I think the vast majority of it was likely large scale low intensity burns with less fuel and many more acres burning at night under high humidity during different months than what we burn now.

I believe that if you want things to run optimally then you look at how the natural system functioned without our hands heavily tweaking variables and you try to replicate those conditions. The more ways in which you deviate then the more likely you are to cause unintended consequences and potentially decrease productivity.