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FIRE AND REBIRTH
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The Siskiyou Wildlands is a landscape sculpted by fire. Many of the plant species that thrive in this unique ecosystem are dependent upon fire not only to prosper, but also to propogate. The knobcone pine snags in the upper photographs are bursting with pine cones that only open during intense fires, popping out seeds that scatter across the scorched landscape. These seeds will produce a forest of young trees to replace the aging and diseased trees that died in the fire. Regeneration of other pine species like Ponderosa and Sugar Pine is also dependent upon fire.
Right after a big fire like the Biscuit, the forest floor comes alive in a dazzling display of color as wildflowers and low shrubs regenerate first. The beargrass in the lower left is another fire dependent specie. Native people burned these forests regularly prior to European contact, to encourage the growth of medicine, food and fiber plants that they relied upon, such as beargrass, which they used in their basket weaving.