Nature's Resiliency

November 17, 2020. Photographer: George Seielstad.

One hundred and ten years ago, parts of Idaho and Montana erupted in a firestorm that had no precedent and perhaps no subsequent of equal ferocity. Many small fires were burning in 1910, but hurricane-force winds on August 20 and 21 whipped them into a single, immense fire. The photo above was taken on July 12, 2020, almost exactly 110 years after the Big Burn, from the Stateline Trail that threads the Idaho-Montana border. The view is looking toward Montana. What was a devastated, scorched landscape is now a rich, extensive forest.. Nature, given time, has superb recovery powers.