Some researchers , as well as some timber companies and private citizens , understood that fire was a natural state of affairs in many ecosystems . Fire would help clean out the understory and dead plant matter , allowing economically important tree species to grow with less competition for nutrients . Native Americans would often burn woodlands to reduce overgrowth and increase grasslands for large prey animals such as bison and elk . When the U.S. Forest Service was established in 1905 , it became the primary task of the Forest Service to suppress all fires on the forest reserves it administered . In 1916 , the National Park Service was established and took over park management from the Army . Following the Forest Service approach , fire suppression became the only fire policy and remained in the national parks for the next five decades . Some foresters questioned the economic logic of such suppression efforts . However , the extensive fires of 1910 solidified the Forest Service as the premier fire control organization and fire suppression remained the only fire policy for all federal land management agencies until the late 1960s
fires of 1910
Great Fire of 1910
History of wildfire suppression in the United States