Column: Stand down, Smokey Bear. Burnie the Bobcat wants to start good fires

The newly installed billboard off Interstate 80 offers a badly needed twist on eight decades of firefighting dogma.

Its message: “Only you can decide our fiery future.”

When I wrote last month that Smokey Bear and his “only you can prevent wildfires” slogan have become sadly outdated — with climate scientists telling us our history of aggressive fire suppression has actually resulted in bigger, more destructive blazes by stopping forests from trimming themselves — I didn’t think there would be such a good solution in my inbox so quickly.

Read more at the Los Angeles Times.