Simi Fire, in the beginning 10/24/03

Who would have known that from this would come such massive scale destruction Steve.

That really sucks...

Many years ago, there was a prof at Cal State L.A., (Dr. Vogel) who taught fire ecology. We are experiencing the results of poor fire ecology management techniques. The native Americans used to burn forests. This gave the undergrowth a cutting back and let the sed levels grow at a lower height, making it easier for many animals to eat. Overgrown underbrush, for instance, raises the food height so deer can not reach it, more or less.
The impact of these fires will be with us for quite a while. But, as with the Mailbu fires, growth will come soon and should bloom in amazing levels for the next few years.
Morel mushrooms abound in post fire areas, above the snow line and are seen poking through the snow in spring. IT is actually part of the usual cycle, but made more intense by human intervention. The downside is that the human intervention caused hotter fires and many of the seeds that require heat stimulation were destroyed because of the overgrowth of the undergrowth.