mature and interesting scholarship, and not a common view
Fire set by humans has shaped virtually every hectare of the country.
Pyne describes the country as a set of “fire rings” focused on Hudson Bay: the tundra, the boreal forest, the Prairies and Great Lakes forests, the hill forests of Acadia and the mountain forests of the Rockies, and the coastal forests of Cape Breton, Newfoundland, and B.C. Each region is highly complex, burning only when conditions are right.
Lightning has always been a factor, but human fire has been far more influential.