Maybe it is different in the West, but a "good" fire is one that burns through the undergrowth and only scorches healthy trees. I see them regularly here in the

Maybe it is different in the West, but a "good" fire is one that burns through the undergrowth and only scorches healthy trees. I see them regularly here in the southeast. The problem is that if you go without fire for too long, when it does finally burn it will be so hot that it'll burn up even healthy trees. So, I am not an expert, but I can easily imagine that logging (and the side effects of logging) would have a beneficial effect, because there isn't as much fuel to burn, but that wouldn't be necessary if we'd had controlled burns all the time. (NB that the linked opinion article claims that is not the case - but that's the logic.)