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- e e News - Department of Natural Resources Within a year or less, the burned area is likely to become an interesting place to watch as nature rebuilds. Three years after the 1988 Sugarloaf fire in Boulder County, signs of renewal were abundant with plenty of tall snags.. dead trees - with woodpeckers and insects. Insects are usually the first to return to a burned-out area, often followed by cavity-nesting birds. By feeding upon dead or dying trees, wood borers and beetles serve as food to species of birds. The dead wood proVides ideal habitat for certain birds that will thrive after a fire. Decaying trees allract insects that are fed upon by many species of wildlife. Today, a dozen years after the fire, the Sugarloaf area is teaming with wildlife. Soon after the fire, there were small mammals, such as voles and deer mice, which provide food for larger predators. A decade later, there are many deer, elk and bear in the area. One of the first plants to grow back was wild raspberries, and the birds retumed immediately to eat them. On a much larger scale, in 1988, the world watched more than one-third of Yellowstone Park burn, and a group of scientists from different disciplines predicted the area might lack vegetation for decades. But to their surprise, the grasses and wildflowers returned the first spring. The North Fork fire, Yellowstone's largest, consumed 531,000 acres, but researchers were surprised to find some flower species, such as lupine, tripled in numbers the following year. Other flowers that grew back quickly in Yellowstone were Indian paintbrush, pine grass flowers and showy asters. The specific ways in which nature rebuilds a forest depend on many factors, each unique to the specific fire. If the fire was exceptionally hot, the ground may become sterile for several years. Generally, the rich ash and increased sunshine, since mature trees are no longer blocking the sun's rays, provide a place for certain young trees and plants to grow. Some tree species - notably aspen and lodge pole pine - are adapted to grow in post-fire conditions. The pine cones often remain closed for years until they are opened by the heat of forest fires. And trees that don't survive the fire still play an important role in rebuilding the forest, as nutrients that were stored in the living trees have been released into the soil to create conditions prime for new plants to grow. But we can be sure that the forest will look different for years, as will the wildlife species that move in following the fire. Wildlife that lived in a mature forest may move to another area with the type of tall trees and forage they prefer, and the burned area may allract new species during the growth period. During various stages of regrowth, a variety of wildlife will move in and move out of the same area. Although the timing of the fire created a greater impact on the bird population than it might have a few months later when young birds were able to fly, it can have a benefilto the overall bird population, too. "Many birds can nest a second time," said Lamb. 'It depends on availability of habitat and nesting sites. We'll also see bird species appear that were more rare in the area before the fire, because it wasn1the type of habitat they prefer. What usually happens after a fire is that the birds that are cavity nesters - including flickers and other woodpeckers, chickadees, mountain bluebirds, and some nuthatches .. will find places in the dead trees.' "Once it's safe, and fire closures are lifted, people will want to look at the area over a period of time to see the changes that occur," Zaccagnini said. "The fire brings the forest back to an earlier successional stage..In any healthy ecosystem, you need a variety of stages; different ages and types of plants and trees. The most variety of wildlife species can be supported in an ecosystem that has enough of each of the various stages. For wildlife, fire is generally part of a healthy ecosystem -- it's not bad in and of itself." ### Division of W~dlife Previous hllp;! /dnr.state,co.uslnewslpress.asp ?pressid= 1978 Page 3 of 3 7/25/02