Around my small farm in Northern California the countryside is as brown as toast. Neighboring ranchers are concerned, because our fire season usually does not peak until September. My own redwood grove is browner than usual, so after seeing the dramatic and primal frontpage photos of burning sequoias, I water it.

What is happening? Why are the wildfires so bad this year across the Western United States and what can we learn from them?

Michael Castangollo is a 27 year veteran firefighter for the San Francisco Fire Department.

He lives among the redwoods himself, north of the city.

"We need to change our ways of thinking about fires," Castangollo notes. "Our culture has been suppressing fire for so long that we have let the underbrush build up. So when a fire does break out, it is more intense and makes it to the canopy."

Castangollo added, "Rather than fight fires, we need to tend them. We need to protect people and their homes, but we also need to accept that fire is a prevailing energy in the world. It changes things."

When Castangollo visited Italy he noticed that the fire houses had a sign that translates to "Watchers of the Smoke."

He feels that people need to be vigilant about fires and "tend better to things. When people move into wilderness areas, they put themselves at risk."

Many of the wildfires occur in the interface between wilderness areas and where people live and visit; they are often set by people, accidentally or on purpose.