[from the text] Controlled burns, let burns, or prescribed fire in one form or another has become an increasingly important tool in the public land manager's kit. As an agent of environmental change fire has many things to recommend it. However, there are frequently problems in obtaining public support for the purposeful use of fire in the management of public lands. Objections may be based on visibility reduction and smoke pollution in recreation areas and nearby communities, on the real or imagined danger of the fire escaping and destroying private homes and property or on the unsightliness of scorched vegetation and charred ground. In short, fire in the woods is controversial.