Recovery, a Walk Through a Burn
by Bob Ross


Walking through the B&B Burn periodically is a fascinating exercise in understanding how the forest recovers. Different parts of the forest were burned to different degrees, and now are exposed to different amounts of sunshine and wind, and receive different amounts of water. The result is that some parts of the forest are recovering quite rapidly, while other parts have not started the process at all. Some parts of the forest are full of thistles, but where there is little wind, there are no thistles since thistle seeds are carried by the wind. And where there are thistles, there are pollinating insects. Where there are lots of insects, there are insect-eating birds such as the mountain bluebird--we saw dozens. As the thistle seeds mature, the seed-eating birds such as the pine siskins arrive for the feast. While walking through richly vegetated areas, we were surrounded by birds; when in unvegetated parts of the forest, we saw few. The week we were there, many of the birds had fledged, so we were seeing young birds all over the place--along with their weary parents.

Where water has puddled for a while, there are myriads of small liverwort plants. While rarely seeing them in mature forests, we are finding them everywhere in the burned forest. Their sexual and asexual methods of reproducing are working wonders for the species. One wonders how such small plants can become present all over the floor of the burned forest in such a short period of time, and what factors suppress their numbers in mature forests. It is fascinating to consider the various life strategies that are being used as the various organisms try to get ahead in the world. It is also an interesting challenge to try to piece together the various connections or relationships among all of the living and non-living components of the ecosystem as we attempt to answer all of the "why's."

editor's note: View Bob's excellent photography: http://www.photoquery.com/


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