Wildfires are often viewed as destructive disturbances. We propose that when including both evolutionary and socioecological scales, most ecosystem fires can be understood as natural processes that provide a variety of benefits to humankind. Wildfires provide open habitats that enable the evolution of a diversity of shade-intolerant plants and animals that have long been used by humans. There are many provisioning, regulating, and cultural services that we obtain from wildfires; prescribed fires and wildfire management are tools for mimicking the ancestral role of wildfires in a highly populated world.