The snow has melted. A one day affair, pretty while it lasted. You can still see some snow in the lower elevation mountains above.
One of my daily walks takes me through the area that burned back in 2008. As you might know, the first day we moved into this homestead, a fire nearly burned us out. We were evacuated by the local sheriff, went to a shelter, and watched the "burn map" with sadness as the fire was said to burn over our home (that we got to spend one night in).
Well, gloriously, the fire department of Beverly Hills saved the house--and we are an island of green amongst 38,000 acres of totally burned out forest. It was sad at first. Now I watch the area slowly recover. I watch the burned trees break over time. The trees come down in sections; first the top, then the middle. Windstorms blow down more trees.
How long before this "stand replacing fire" is healed? From what I've read, it will be longer than I will live. But I will watch the process on my daily walks. Someone else will have to take over the job of watching the forest recover after I'm gone.
2 comments:
Hi Allan, I'm visiting from NatureBlog Network. Our trees in CO are being decimated by the pine beetle - we're losing all our Lodgepoles. When a windstorm comes, I often wish it would blow down the dead trees, but usually it's the green ones that succumb.
Hi Barb,
Thanks for the visit. That whole bark beetle thing is quite a problem. Rapid onset. I used to live in Colorado--and that problem wasn't even mentioned when I left in 2003. Now, millions of acres affected, from what I understand (I haven't been back to see the damage). Another consequence of climate change.
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