Humans have lived in fire-adapted ecosystems since time immemorial, and the Indigenous Peoples of this region stewarded these habitats with fire before European colonization and continue to use fire on the landscape. As European settlers arrived, wildfire threatened developing communities, and attention turned to suppressing fires to protect homes, agriculture, and public infrastructure. That focus on fire suppression led to unnaturally dense forests and the loss of fire-adapted grassland habitats. As the area's population grows and more people move into the Wildland Urban Interface, resource managers must balance habitat objectives with protecting human development, including homes, roads, and power lines. Controlled burns are an essential tool for preventing large, uncontrollable wildfires because low-intensity fires reduce the build-up of hazardous fuels such as leaves, branches, and logs on the ground. Before ignition, burn crews monitor weather conditions to ensure a safe and successful burn, and during the fire they watch how smoke disperses, adjusting their plan or stopping the burn if smoke threatens the public. Although working with fire always involves hazards, the dangers are much less with controlled burns than with uncontrolled wildfires such as Maine's Great Fires of 1947 and the neighboring Branch Brook Wildfire in 2018.