We were in Ashland, Oregon over the weekend for a wedding and the air was hazy. We were told that it was a result of a wild fire still burning in the Trinity National Forest. It had burned we were told more than ten thousand acres.  Wild Fires and forest fires get lots of play in the news because among other things they are scary when they threaten people and houses, the firefighters are extremely brave and the fires create great photos opportunities.

The implication in the news is often that a fire is extremely devastating. One way reporters give this impression is by breathlessly reporting the number of acres burned.  “Six hundred acres burned” sounds much worse than one square mile but they are the same area.  For some perspective the United States contains about three and a half billion acres.  Ten thousand acres is three tenthousandths of a percent of the total country.

Wild fires are scary and should be reported but they do not really threaten the well being of our country or our communities.  They are a local phenomenon that gets good publicity.