The larger fires we have now will give us smaller fires in the future. We could easily have a 10,000-acre fire right now, had we not had the Helen Creek fire in 1994.

Now almost 20 years later, we have trees that are 20 feet tall.

We're suppressing about 50 percent of our fires, and there are good reasons why we are suppressing them.

When you look at the mosaic of fires that have burned over the last 20 years, it's probably very similar to what occurred in the 1800s. Not a whole lot of fires occurred in the wilderness from 1929 to 1985.

We're already seeing the benefits of larger fires keeping new fires smaller.