To protect forests, I learned to burn them

By: Alex Brown

Outlets: Stateline

Published: August 27, 2026

Words: 2,800

Last Updated: 2 weeks, 5 days ago

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AUBURN, Wash. — In the back row of a small community college classroom, I sip my coffee and consider a cumulus cloud, a puffy white pillar over an expanse of blue. I’m not staring out the window, but at a presentation on a screen at the front of the room.

Cumulus clouds are a telltale sign of an unstable atmosphere, Matthew Dehr, wildland fire meteorologist with the Washington Department of Natural …

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