I took this from the overlook in Palmer Park this afternoon. The foothills above the Mountain Shadows neighborhood still look bare, thirteen and-a-half years after the Waldo Canyon Fire torched everything in its 18,247 acre path, including 346 homes in that part of the city. I'm sure it looks different up close, but from this distance it's almost like the fire just happened, there doesn't seem to be any apparent new growth although there was actually a huge push to plant things as soon as they were able. It must all be low bushes and grasses. I know that it takes decades (or even centuries) for Mother Nature to rebuild after a catastrophic fire. I miss the way these foothills used to look.
2 comments:
I looked at some pictures before 2015. And i fully understand your emotion. This landscape resembles that of vulcanics soils.
We had a big fire at the Tyresta National Park back in 1999. Arson attack on a hot Summer day. I could see the smoke from home. Lots of three hundred year old forest lost, around 10% of the park. It took a week for the firefighters to stop the fire. They used so much water in two park lakes that they had to use water from the Baltic sea. Soon after we noticed many new fungi and plants growing there. Some bird species have disappeared. I read somewhere that it would take 75 hears for nature to heal.
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