There are plenty of places where firewood is in abundance, in fact over-abundance, and a properly placed fire is a good thing. Unfortunately, out here in the west at high elevations (where what wood there is needs to be left to rot and replenish the thin alpine soils) and with a long dry season, that is not often the case. Here in the Northwest, it seems that either the fire danger is too high to build a fire safely or everything is so soggy that all we can achieve is a smudge--nothing in between!