Reflections from Forest Fires

I’ve been in the woods a lot this summer, both for recreation and for work. It is surprising to see just how many different “types” of wooded areas there are just in our little spot in Northwest Montana. Although the trees are all the same, there are places that have been recently logged, places that are super-overgrown with underbrush, places where the Lodgepole pine are so close together that you couldn’t hope to get through them for miles, places that have burned within the last couple years, etc. To be honest the most beautiful places are those that are growing back after a logging or clearing operation or after a fire burned through the area.

For the last century or so, the national policy was for absolute fire prevention allowing fuels and undergrowth to become out of control and fires of today to burn hotter and faster. Thankfully we are realizing that fire in the woods is a natural cycle; many trees, plants, birds, and animals need it for their life cycle. We can do it on our own too: thinning/fuels reduction projects and controlled burning can achieve the same results as natural fire without the possibility of property damage or loss of life. Unfortunately I feel like these projects don’t happen as often as they should because people are turned off by the initial damage caused, don’t like to see dead trees or blackened trunks. They would rather see a forest “full of life” with lots of green, leafy foliage.

I wonder if it’s an innate human desire to cling to life and want it to be eternal. I believe we were created by God with a longing for an everlasting life with Him. Trying to fill that void with lots of “life” in other forms comes from not having a hope of eternal life after this world. Just like the fire cycle in our forests, we will undergo a death in this life but be regenerated into a heavenly life that we can’t even begin to imagine now. I look forward to that day with as much excitement as I have when I see new plant shoots growing out from underneath blackened, charred soil.