It's the same in Australia and the indigenous here are nomadic and still use wildfire to their advantage and to the betterment of the land.
The western settlers here also use fire regularly to cut down on fuel load in the forests, we call them controlled burns and they're mostly done by volunteer firefighters. They essentially have a slow burning firefront walk through the forest floor to burn up the brush which emulates a natural wildfire.
Big wildfires like we are seeing take out huge swaths of land in Aus and California are the consequence of excessive fuel load build up thanks to human intervention. Of course climate change will contribute by making the conditions required for wildfire more common but the root of the severity lies elsewhere for now.
I've thought quite a few times that some sort of robotic or semi-automated brush clearing system could be an interesting startup. In principle I don't see why you couldn't cut stuff, grab it, throw it in a wood chipper, and haul it out of the forest.
The devil is always in the details though and I have no idea what all is involved in operating in the forest or the economics, legality, and politics of it.
The western settlers here also use fire regularly to cut down on fuel load in the forests, we call them controlled burns and they're mostly done by volunteer firefighters. They essentially have a slow burning firefront walk through the forest floor to burn up the brush which emulates a natural wildfire.
Big wildfires like we are seeing take out huge swaths of land in Aus and California are the consequence of excessive fuel load build up thanks to human intervention. Of course climate change will contribute by making the conditions required for wildfire more common but the root of the severity lies elsewhere for now.