by Will Boyd, from the April 2006 Newsletter

A twenty-year-old lodgepole pine stands on a knoll overlooking Crooked River before it flows to the South Fork Clearwater.

Lightning strikes. A fire burns.

A pinecone expands, like popcorn in a microwave.

Three small winged seeds escape fire beneath the protecting cone.

They lie in the new soil formed by the fire, soon to be incorporated along with the remains of burned grasses and branches into the thick forest duff layer.

This cone did well, several of its offspring surviving the fire. In some places the fire burned hot on the ground and consumed all of the pine seeds. In some places it jumped from spot to spot mildly burning the understory and forest floor.

Some older trees lived through the fire; some trees died and remained standing; some burned completely through and returned valuable nutrients to the soil.

Dead trees become homes for many different organisms. Lewis's and black-backed woodpeckers hammer out cavities, which may be used by many other animals in the following years. Flammulated, screech and pygmy owls, kestrels, red squirrels, butterflies, and beetles all call pine snags home. Once fallen, they serve the more terrestrial southern red-backed voles, Idaho giant salamanders, and western skinks.

These three protected seeds grew into seedlings, receiving the required amount of bright sunlight to get a good first year's start on root and shoot growth.  They escaped the drought and grazing that so often ends the life of a fragile young lodgepole. Two of these three grew into mature trees. The third tree was killed during a hard winter of heaving frost. Despite shallow roots and thin bark the remaining two survived and now along with their neighboring pines, provide shade for a rich undergrowth of huckleberries, beargrass, and grouse whortleberry. Their bows give roost to grouse, and nest to vireo, cover to elk and plucking post to the woodland hawks.

For more information on the biodiversity of the wild Clearwater visit Friends of the Clearwater's website at www.wildrockies.org/foc.

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