Along a sloping hillside in north-central Idaho, one-year-old ponderosa pine seedlings soaked up sunlight and spread their roots. The Nez Perce, or NiMiiPuu, tribe, which owns the land, planted the trees in 2002 with visions of the water quality and environmental health they would bring. But its hopes for regenerating the land faded when fire from a vehicle on a nearby highway spread onto the reservation.
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Over nine days in ...