Fire is medicine for nature.
This is part of the ancestral knowledge of the Yurok of Northern California.
When the leaves are dry, the air is damp and the wind is still, they go out into nature and set the forest on fire.
Dressed in fireproof suits, they draw lines of flame on the ground with their dripping torches, which then crawl blazing through the undergrowth.
Until recently, what the Yurok practice was forbidden.
"To protect the Indians," the Californian government had already banned the wanton burning of natural vegetation in 1850.
The foresters considered it dangerous and destructive.
They saw their nemesis in the fire.
Wherever there was a fire, the fire brigade responded.
In recent years, however, it has been shown that the fight against the flames cannot be won in this way.
Southwest America is being hit by a persistent mega drought, and climate change is causing heat waves to last longer and longer.
All the fire brigades and fire-fighting planes don't help.
The number and severity of forest fires have increased dramatically.
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