Smokey the Bear's Legacy on the West

Smokey the Bear's Legacy on the West: "No single human modification of the environment has had more pervasive and widespread negative consequences for the ecological integrity of North America than the suppression of fire"

Discuss.

What's slightly sad is that this was a topic of conversation even back in 1986, when I was in Colorado and Wyoming was hit by fires so big that pilots coming into Denver airport could smell the smoke.