Bittersweet

by Marlene Borneman

Fireweed is one of the first flowers to return after a fire. I took this photo after the 2012 fire in Cub Canyon.

"Adopt the pace
Of nature:
​Her secret is patience"
Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Singing Snag in the Ouzel Lake area.

In 2015 Rocky Mountain National Park celebrated its 100th birthday!  Three weeks ago, I celebrated my sixty-eighth birthday.  I’m learning that with the aging process comes both physical and emotional scars.  I have an appendix scar, back surgery scar, in-situ melanoma scar, scar from childhood slide accident and a few other minor scars.

​The deaths of my parents, my sister, dear friends and a divorce left me with emotional scars.  I have healed and live a rich life in spite of these scars.  Rocky has it share of scars too from beetle kills, floods, fire, and even initials carved  into aspen trees. ​

​Wildfires are destructive no doubt whether caused by nature or man.  However public lands, national forest and National Parks can benefit from fires.  Fires may be a way for nature to cleanse itself and start over. 

Around 1916 there was a fire in the Tahosa Valley area leaving a huge burn scar in the foreground of Longs Peak.  Today looking up to a thick green forest you would never know a fire happened.  In 1978 the Ouzel fire raged across parts of wild Basin.  ​

2012 burn area on the Tonahutu Trail.

2012 there was the Cub/Spruce Canyon fire.  Rocky has a lot of dead, decaying trees building up fuels but not contributing much to new growth. Fire turns them into ashes and releases nutrients into the soil, thus making the soil healthy again.  

​Fires also destroy insects.  Fires open up the canopies so sunlight once again can reach the forest floor.  New plants grow providing habitat and food to various animals.  I see many slopes of Lodgepole pines thickly packed in the Park not leaving much room for anything else to thrive.  Lodgepole pines even need fire for their own survival. 

​The Lodgepole cones are sealed with a thick resin sealing the seeds in tightly.  Only very high temperatures like produced from fires can open the cones up so seeds can be dispersed.  In no time seedlings start popping up in the rich soil provided by fire.  New growth will happen. 

Rock clematis on the Cub Lake Trail.

So, Rocky’s landscape will look different for a long while.  I have witnessed  first hand Rocky’s ability to restore to health from fire. 

This summer I hiked through Cub Canyon seeing  sunlight filtering through providing light for plants to spread and grow.  I even found an uncommon orchid that I had not seen in that area before. 

​Who knows? Maybe it has been waiting for more light. This fall I hiked through the Ouzel fire area and commented how many young trees are filling in the mountainsides. 

​Yes, it has taken 30 plus years, but Rocky’s many scars are healing. ​