After Fire Images

Sad and disheartening to see people loose their homes but be of good cheer because nature will heal the wounds of fire. When Yellowstone burnt down in 1988 I was sick to my stomach all summer. But to see it now you wouldn't even no that a fire consumed more than a million acres of the park. Today the park is better for it. Small trees everywhere, almost a jungle.

I added these pictures to show what it can look like a couple of years following a fire. The soil becomes enriched with minerals providing the best food possible for the plants and the animals.

One of the most beautiful experiences in taking images over the years has been after the Yellowstone fires.

Nice images. I agree, my heart goes out to those who have lost homes, land and possessions. The landscape has changed and now we'll wait and see what it brings forth.

Awesome pics, Dean, and i really appreciate the sentiment. I may be a cynic, but the reality as i see it is that Yellowstone was badly damaged, and is not the park it was before '88 (i was there before the fires) There are still many parts of the park where the burned forest is quite evident. The loss of tall trees has decimated the moose population in the park, according to the park personnel. Unfortunately, the fires today are burning at such an extreme intensity that they are literally scorching the earth. Recovery will take longer, and may not even occur. The Hayman has had similar wildflower explosions following the fire (2003), but it is still one huge ugly scar, still extremely prone to erosion. We are losing our forests to fire and plague (beetles/disease) a lot faster than the forests are regenerating. The irony is that the small trees saved Yellowstone from beetle kill (which has been one precursor to the mega fires CO is seeing right now--predictable, but shocking nevertheless) However, The Tetons have not been so lucky, theyre next in line from the Wind River Range, which i saw get swallowed up nearly completely by bug kill in the space of only a few years.
With nothing but extreme heat and drought in the forecast, its hard for me to share your optimism right now. But ill try

Thanks Dean! I'm still haunted by the realization that the hills here that I loved so much will never in my lifetime look like they did when I enjoyed them. Your pictures give me hope that maybe something better will come along.

I'll add that i get really ticked off (and i apologize for my tone, but im not a happy camper right now) when i hear the media refer to this as a "natural disaster", as if we (people) had nothing to do with it. There's a reason the FBI is involved. Even in the unlikely event that Waldo was a lightning strike (as High Park apparently was) the forests have suffered from questionable management and dramatic climate change, which most experts agree we (people) have had a hand in.

I actually read an interesting article about how trees killed from pine beetle actually don't make wildfires worse. Apparently the sap in live trees combusts and causes them to burn hotter than dead ones making the fire worse.

I should clarify that im not implying the beetle kill is making the fires 'worse' (although most folks ive heard from say the High Park fire went nuts precisely because it was in prime beetle kill area) I don't really know how the miles of dead trees affect fire growth--not my area of expertise--but i suppose the extremely dry long-term fuels (driest most fire experts in the state have ever witnessed--worse then 2003) are as good kindling as the dead lodgepoles. I was only mentioning the beetle kill to show the alarming destruction rate of our forests, due to a combination of factors. if you have a reference to that article, Jason, please pass it along to me.

I was talking with a wildland firefighter who is a neighbor. He was saying when the moisture is less than 2%, the needles and the waxy coating they secrete become extremely flammable.