More or less.
Nature evolved with constant fires that kept the underbrush down so natural fires usually stayed down low and didn't get into the tree canopies. When you suppress fire for years the fuel supply builds up so when a fire does start it's much more intense and gets into the canopies and that's where the real damage occurs.
Ponderosa pine has a very thick bark that can withstand the lower intensity ground fires. One species of pine actually requires fire to seed, its cones stay closed until fire causes them to open, then the seeds are released on clear ground which has the double benefit of being fertilized by raw nutrients released from the burned underbrush.
After a fire comes through the land takes a few years to recover but it comes back even stronger than before. It provides clearings for edge animals like deer and the plants they eat grow in profusion on the now open ground.
Lots of reason now to suppress fires but most are economic.
We have a terrible cheat grass problem around here - nasty little invasive grass that is far less nutritious than native grasses and has very clingy seeds. Natural fire suppressed it but without fire it out competes the native plants here and has taken over.
Gunnery, gunnery, gunnery.
Hit the target, all else is twaddle!
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