There are few places in western North America, and increasingly in the northern regions of Canada and Alaska, where wildfire and its effects are unfamiliar sights. Last year, wildfires burned more than 800,000 hectares of National Forest lands; the same year, a record 4.1 million hectares burned across all land ownerships in the United States. National Forest lands have been particularly hard-hit in the five-year span from 2011 to 2015, with over 3.6 million ha scorched. Not surprisingly, given the horrific images that emerge from these fires, the public’s view of wildfires is strongly negative, and most people generally support efforts to reduce the risks of large, severe fires. At the same time, the public is less familiar with the positive aspects of wildfire, such as the creation of wildlife habitat or the maintenance of ecological processes upon which many desirable ecosystem services depend.