The beauty of a burned forest

In the Northern Rockies, forests that have escaped fire are rare. In the Crown, fire is just as important as rainfall and sunlight are to plants and animals. For the vast majority of forest types within the region, the predominant fire regime is one of infrequent, intense, stand-replacement fires—not one of frequent, low-intensity, understory burns. With ever-present fire in the system, we might expect that plants and animals have, over evolutionary time, not only come to survive severe fire, but to depend on severe fire for their persistence and success. That is the story I want to tell here.