Controlled burning has deep historical roots in many regions of the United States, where the practice was quickly adopted from the native peoples by early European settlers. It became used widely, primarily to improve forage conditions for free-ranging cattle and to improve visibility and access for hunters. The US Forest Service’s Smokey the Bear Wildfire Prevention campaign launched in 1944 heightened concerns about using fire as an effective tool itself to mitigate the risks of catastrophic wildfires. But in recent decades, the planned and well-executed broadcast application of fire to a landscape has been recognized as valuable in: controlling the spread of invasive species such as Douglas fir trees in an oak woodlands, or non-native grasses in grazing lands; or preventing runaway wildfires by creating fuel breaks to interrupt the spread of the fire or reducing the fuel available to burn; or serving to preserve and conserve ecological characteristics as food sources or for cultural uses such as basketry. In this interactive virtual session, designed for landowners and managers, you will learn from experts about the impact of fire on a landscape. We will look at videos of a variety of landscapes and learn from these experts how to read those landscapes, assessing whether fire might be able to improve safety, or the health of native species. When you leave this workshop, you will be able to see evidence of historic fire and evidence of lack of fire. You will be able to make predictions of about whether fire might improve safety, reduce wildland diseases, or improve habitat for native species.