Regeneration of Forest

Notice the combination of burnt trees and new trees in this photo. This is a result of the devastating forest fires in Yellowstone in 1998. Fires are actually healthy for forests, forests have been burning for millions of years before man got here. But then the National Forest Service started putting out every fire, probably the same idiots who banned bicycles in parts of Yellowstone. The result was that tons of dead wood and underbrush built up so when a really roaring fire got out of control, they almost lost the entire forest. Regular fires burn off the dead trees, underbrush, open up meadows for new plant life and allow the sunlight to reach the ground. Also provides very fertile soil for new plant life. But most important, it takes intense heat, such as from a forest fire, for the pine cones to burst open and spread their seeds. Without a fire, there is no way the seeds would come out of the pine cones to regenerate the forest. In healthy forests that burn reguarly, the fire bur
ns along the ground surface and the trees survive. Now the new policy is to let fires burn unless they threaten a structure. But even that is getting harder as people encroach on the forest and build homes there. Kind of like building a home on a barrier island or intercoastal waterway, a disaster waiting to happen. The park rangers must have gotten tired of being asked, who planted all these trees? Now there are signs everywhere that say trees regenerated naturally after fires.