There's big money for the Forest Service in "Managing" wildland fires. Why change what is a good thing for them? They like it just the way it is. The more a fire burns, the fatter their budget gets. Not to mention the millions in grants to "study" wildland fires.
So I had a chat with one of my friends in the local FD. Why no control burns? Simple. Air quality limits. Now we play Russian roulette when a fire burns. And hey, the USFS didn’t start it, did they, not their fault? Chaparral will burn. In fact fires are part of the ecosystem. Now our hands are tied and we can’t do the right thing BEFORE it becomes a crisis. Like much of our politics - see oil drilling for a comparable example. Time to get our heads out of our collective @$$3$.