For decades Americans have battled forest fires believing that they were saving valuable living landscapes from certain destruction. Yet where fire has been eliminated, forest health has suffered. Today scientists as well as government officials believe that the nation is facing a crisis in forest health. Fires burned in North America for thousands of years before European settlers arrived. The fires were caused by lightning as well as by native peoples. As the country was settled, people grew increasingly fearful of the huge fires that burned valuable timber and millions of acres of land. The government made firefighting a high priority for all of the agencies that manage federal lands.

The Forest Service as part of the Department of Agriculture fights fires on 190 million acres of national forest as well as adjacent lands where the fires spread, and the National Park Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and...