Forest Fires and Drastic Pruning
Plants provide us with many valuable lessons on how to deal with life. What seems drastic and destructive can sometimes turn out to be a healthy new start.
Fires Of Rejuvenation
Let’s talk forest fires! What a lot of people do not realize is that fire is a natural part of most forest ecosystems. In fact, the trees and bushes in those forests and ecosystems have evolved to depend on fire for many things.
As trees and bushes grow and fill in the landscape, they compete with each other for nutrients and sunshine. The forests and meadowlands in the wild evolve and change over time. The plants and trees grow taller, block sunshine, and take the nutrients from their neighbors. This is why a lot of old growth tall timber stands have very little on their forest floor because the tall trees shade the understory and over time there is a reduction in available nutrients/resources for other plants.
The same thing happens in brushland. I remember learning about “decadent sagebrush” stands at college in Utah. Decadent sagebrush are very old and gnarly looking sagebrush that have not experienced fire in many decades. The sagebrush bushes have become decadent or ridiculously overgrown and bulky by not experiencing fires through natural cycles. This usually happens because those managing the ranchlands have put out fires that start and the landscape piles up with brush and debris. These stands of decadent brush end up reducing biodiversity and less animals are able to live in them because there are less resources like seeds, grasses, wildflowers, and tender shoots.
A normal sagebrush stand sees fire about every 20-40 years. This prevents the brush from overgrowing and hogging all the resources. When a fire comes through and burns out these stands, their nutrients are released and the sunshine is able to reach other plants which start growing after the fire.
The same phenomenon happens with stands of trees. A forest fire can roll through and burn a lot of things down. It may look very destructive but the fire event itself is also an act of creation, a reset if you will. The fire reorganizes the nutrients and resource patterns for that land. It resets the succession of plants and diversity that can live on that land. Grasses and flowering plants can thrive while the sunshine is abundant and the ash provides nutrients. As the years pass the grasses and plants are slowly edged out by bushes, which are then edged out by trees taking over. Basically, fire rejuvenates the land and provides opportunities for resets.
If fires come too frequently then it becomes impossible for forests to establish. If fire does not happen for far too long, then the forest also becomes decadent and when a fire actually does occur, it can burn so hot and intensely that the earth becomes sterile. This can cause recovery of that ecosystem to take a long long time. The lesson here, semi frequent fires or resets are important for the health of the forest ecotypes.
What lessons can we learn from this? We are very similar to trees and plants. We weather storms in our lives and our bodies (trunks, branches, leaves, etc.) show what we have been through. If we resist change and avoid making healthy, hard, and sometimes painful changes, then we are setting ourselves up for catastrophic results later down the road. Sometimes the most healthy thing we can do is to let our lives burn a bit, start over, and renew where we are allocating our energy and commitments. This allows us to grow in ways that match our current situations and where we are at in life.
One of the most fire adapted forest ecosystems in the world are the forests containing Ponderosa Pines. These trees are beautiful and have adapted to having fires burn through their midst every 10-20 years. In fact, their scaly bark is fire resistant and prevents their trunks from burning as fires clear the brush and grasses away from underneath them. This allows nutrients to go back into the soil and fertilize the stand of trees. By adapting to frequent changes in their environment, they have been able to ensure that they grow healthy and tall.
Drastic Pruning
One method for ridding certain houseplants from pests like spider mites is to do seemingly drastic pruning. Depending on the plant, you can cut it back drastically, treat what is left of the plant, and watch new healthy growth spring forth, without the pests. It takes patience and faith that the drastic pruning will be good for the plant and that the plant will recover.
The same can go for us. If we are brave and have faith that cutting out the bad from our lives will yield healthier growth in the future, we can experience real miracles. If one aspect (or several) is not working out in our life and we have been battling it or trying to resist the imminent change, let it go. Prune it! Burn it down (within reason) and allow yourself to grow in new directions with less baggage.
Trees and bushes who have become decadent end up literally stuck in their own ways. They can only grow new growth from the gnarled branches and trunks that have hardened. When fire or drastic pruning happens to these plants, it allows them to let go of former growth patterns and start anew. They are able to put their energy toward new buds and fresh growth, rather than trying to sustain the old patterns and ways that they had formed.
