Saw a bear on my commute in today

[u/rwhiffen]

[u/CrimsonSpy]

Only Exxon Mobil can stop forest fires

[u/Returning2Riding]

That’s one of those Furries Senator Tommy Tuberville warned us about.

He played too many seasons without a helmet

S

[u/thesirensoftitans]

The origins of Smokey were based in a practice of stopping controlled burns by native people. This actually made our forests less safe and has lead to mega fires.

The more you know…

[u/rwhiffen → u/thesirensoftitans]

The forestry service may have been doing that but the Smokey The Bear campaign started in 1944 because a lot of able-body men were off fighting the war and couldn't be called upon to fight forest fires. The idea was the link it to the war effort.

Again - not disputing forestry management and their extreme containment strategies were misguided, just saying Smokey wasn't strictly part of it.

[u/thesirensoftitans → u/rwhiffen]

Hence the phrase "based in a practice of stopping controlled burns by native people.".

[u/Mountain-Marzipan398 → u/thesirensoftitans]

This seems like an extension of the 2019-early 2020s woke 1.0 epidemic where everything that wasn't performatively "antiracist" was therefore racist. Open to thinking otherwise, but I'm going to have to see some credible source material and not just a bunch of links to unsupported online screeds.

[u/thesirensoftitans → u/Mountain-Marzipan398]

There it is, "woke". Anything people don't want to believe is "woke".

Open to thinking otherwise

Uh huh.

This will be too "woke" for you

As will this 2 parter you probably won't watch

In the mid 19th century, the US gov't took action to stop controlled burns due to fear over losing timber. This was later rescinded as rampant wildfire became an ever-increasing result of this policy.

Here's an excerpt from the last source:

In the mid-nineteenth century, as the logging industry expanded, the U.S. government became increasingly wary of forest fires and questioned the indigenous practice of purposely starting them.[6] In 1850, the California Legislature passed the Act for the Government and Protection of Indians which, among other things, outlawed prescribed burns in the state.[7] Several other states followed suit, and in the 1900s, the U.S. Forest Service (“USFS”) refused to fund wildfire response activities in any state which had not outlawed prescribed burns.[8] Government officials characterized the indigenous tradition as primitive and destructive, as they believed it to hinder the growth of healthy forests and timber.[9]

As wildfires continue to rage and forests no longer flourish as they once had, there has been a resurging acceptance of the benefits of regularly employing prescribed burns. States and the federal government are increasingly partnering with Native American tribes to learn how to safely conduct prescribed burns and incorporate traditional knowledge into government practices.[10] In the 1970s, the USFS dramatically shifted their policies to a “let it burn” approach, allowing natural wildfires to burn without extinguishment in controlled areas.[11] Although out-of-control wildfires in Yosemite National Park set back the success of these policies in the 1980s,[12] the practice of prescribed burns has continued to make its way into state and federal fire policy.

The "Woke" US Forest service.

National Park After Dark podcast did a dive into the origins of the indigenous burn controversy that spawned Smokey bear.

As did Stuff You Should Know podcast. (probably too "woke")

Enjoy!

[u/Mountain-Marzipan398 → u/thesirensoftitans]

I see that the main problem here is that you're confused. Most people these days agree that the practice preventing any fire outbreaks has been highly detrimental. However, there's nothing, including in the articles you posted, that suggests that this had anything to do with being against stopping prescribed burns by native people specifically. Also, Smokey Bear didn't come around until the 1940s. The "Smokey Bear effect" is a term that current day foresters coined.

[u/thesirensoftitans → u/Mountain-Marzipan398]

You didn’t read or listen to anything I posted.

It’s in the first sentence of the excerpt I posted. If your powers of extrapolation are so limited, I won’t waste my time with people who refuse logic or evidence in favor of their own views.