(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Finding Beauty in Wildfire [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2022-12-31 Lupines with burnt log At one time in my life, I avoided hiking in any area that had experienced a large wildfire in recent years. I just didn’t want to see the destruction and wasteland that was left behind. In the past five years or so, I’ve started visiting these areas more often. At first, it was accidental because I just had to pass through a sizable burn and began noticing things that I had never seen before. Passing through burns is unavoidable in the PNW, so that part wasn’t new, but I had always pushed through quickly and hadn’t bothered to stop and take it in. Then I visited the Pasayten Wilderness a couple of years ago because that had been through so many fires in the past decade that I wanted to see it before it was completely destroyed. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the burned out forests on a trip that forced me to slow down and actually look at what was going on. This past summer, I spent two nights in a forest that had been almost entirely burned a few years ago and loved it. I got to see a combination of unique landscapes and new life popping out of the forest floor. I also had almost complete solitude because so few people want to visit those areas (I met a total of three people on a three day trip and had a large meadow all to myself to camp in, which was a real treat). Not all is great, of course. Fires damage trails, making travel difficult, dangerous and sometimes completely impossible, and it can years for life to return when fires are unnaturally intense. Everyone is probably aware of the problem that fires have been in the west in the past decade. Part of that is surely related to climate change, but a century of aggressive fire suppression has played an outsized role as well. Maybe more than people realize. And human recklessness has been one of the primary drivers of increased fire frequency, with poor camp fire management, fireworks and even a gender reveal party sparking enormous fires in recent years. Fires are natural, but the size, frequency and intensity that we’ve experienced lately are not. When fires are too intense, they can bake the soil, making it sterile and hydrophobic. Root systems and microbes that should spawn new life are destroyed and water is repelled by the ground instead of being absorbed. There was a trail here once Our habit of suppressing natural fires has probably been the biggest contributor to long lasting damage. Forest ecosystems evolved with fire and need periodic fires to stay healthy. Some trees like lodgepole pines and sequoias need fire to reproduce. Lower intensity fires kill off pests, preventing mass die-offs that allow fires to spread more quickly, and also clear the understory, removing dead debris that can stack up and increase the intensity of fires that burn right on the soil. The forest service has recognized the problem and the need to change its approach to some extent. Controlled burns are becoming more common and natural fires are now allowed to burn in some areas, with the focus of suppression being to protect structures rather than interfere with nature. The aftermath of the 1988 Yellowstone fire offered a good example of the positive effects of fire. I’m convinced that the policy of suppression was the result of pure hubris and the tendency of humans to claim ownership of natural lands. People saw fires as destroying a possession, not a necessary natural process and that has permeated our culture. Maybe we wouldn’t be in our current position if people had taken some time to observe what happens after a fire rather than the drama of the fire itself. Wildflowers in front of burned trees A temporary meadow The photos above show what new life looks like. New trees are emerging in the background and a temporary meadow has been established. In coming years, the flowers will slowly be replaced with trees again. Some patches of soil still need to recover, but that’s possible with living plants nearby. The edges of a burn in the Pasayten Here you can see the border of a fire. Notice that there’s an island of untouched trees and some smaller burns from spotting. Historically, this pattern would have been more common than it is now. Blackened trunks The soil here was not sterilized. Smaller plants are adding greenery to the forest floor and new trees have sprouted. Lake revealed The forest here has been opened up and landscapes are visible now that were hidden in the past. In 20 years the lake will likely be hidden again. The trunks will also provide habitat to animals that need hidey-holes. Disappearing trail This trail was never heavily traveled and was abandoned entirely after the fire. Farther up, it disappears for some stretches and there are areas that have been sterilized into layers of ash (that’s what we don’t want to see). Meadow from the mountain This fire went up to the edge of the meadow and left an island of trees untouched. I was camped right at the edge of the meadow. A closer view of the meadow Tree fog This is the edge of a burn where live trees can be seen through a fog of dead trunks. I was camped nearby and the wind blowing over the hollowed out trunks sounded like a pipe organ. It was a bit eerie at night. 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