Imagine a new day for life on earth -- Living in community with many thousands on ten thousand acres of forest and wilderness land. Over time and generations we would restore and grow and tend and improve habitat, sinking carbon and then the fire comes -- inevitable -- all your compassionate work thought lost.
If your village were nomadic you would move on, or perhaps if you were a caretaker society of the future you would set in motion restoration of the burn, hastening its regeneration using technologies and infrastructure and propagation, and then let wilding take its course. Your work, done for the moment.
Life in your village, if your structures were hardened and survived the fire would be a shadow of what it was, transformed by fire, dwellers having completely different purpose and its culture transformed in relationship to the land -- but burn it will, burn it must, again and again over eons. We would live and return to the landscape for ages, as caretakers, and carry that knowledge of fire in our bones, ancient memories we pass to our children in stories. Nature knows the way and fire will always be part of nature.
There is of course a dominate and modern story. Private property estates on the hill and resorts in wild lands and private mansions nestled in tracts of wilderness with vineyard and affluence. As picturesque as these modern stories may be, they are out of step with the original human in nature story. I do not think they can ever be reconciled with fire, try as they will.
PG&E is a criminal syndicate run amok in this modern story, but they did not make this story. So although we must hold them to account for their crimes, this will not repair our modern story and our relationship to fire. It will just be a lawnmower next time.
