During the Halloween-into-Thanksgiving hangover, Verde Valley residents may have noticed encroaching smoke as fire crews carried out prescribed burns along forests in central and northern Arizona. A 2016 study by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has found evidence of links between human-caused climate change and wildfires, making controlled burning all the more prevalent. While the smoke impact may be inconvenient and sometimes foreboding, deliberate fires are not only inevitable but necessary.