This forum brings together fire ecologists from outside the current wildfire controversy in the US to give their views on three central topics related to ecosystems in which wildfires are an important process. First, how do fire behavior and ecological effects vary between ecosystems? Second, why does this variation require an understanding that goes beyond simple correlations between various fire and ecosystem variables to more careful causal models? Third, how can human values and goals be reconciled with fire disturbance processes in an ecologically sound manner?