Once upon a time there was a forest here, but there is no more, becasue the fire took it way. How long will this place be alive again? This is the border between Greece and Albania.
Plants will start re-growing next spring, a mixture of various annual plants, and (I hope!) at least some pine seedlings from seeds blown in from surrounding trees. It will start to look like a forest again when the pines are 10-20 years old.
The cones of certain pines are stimulated to open and release their seeds when fires go through - the result, within a small number of years, is an extremely dense forest of young pines, that are later thinned out through competition. I couldn't say whether that's true of any of the species that occur there, though.
The pines in the photo are Pinus nigra; that doesn't apply to this species. But the trees in the photo still with some green foliage (and maybe even the ones with scorched foliage) will still have viable seed in their 2008-crop cones which will disperse in the late winter.
Fireweed is a common weed that grow after a fire. Would it be possible to give nature a helping hand by growing and transplanting seedlings?
In this forest there are (were) Fagus sylvatica and Pinus nigra, Juniperus sp, Rubus sp, Prunus sp, and some other shrubs which I have to check my previos photos. Anyway the photo is takes one week later than the fire was down. I know that the grass and specially those on Graminaceae will be pionering plants. I will try to publish the previos photo before fire. THank you let keep up this subject. THere were also some animals and lots of snakes and small rodents and birds too. All of them are gone I hope.
No need to garden (plant) a functioning ecosystem. And there are reasons not to meddle, including introduction of races of native plants grown elsewhere that will then interbreed with the local race and pollute its genetics, and the possibility of introducing pests or pathogens along with the nursery stock. To transplant wild origin stock of the local race from adjacent sites you have to raid those stands, thus canceling out the presumed benefit of adding new specimens to the burnt site. Likewise all animals part of the local ecosystem (and not exotic pest species) are beneficial to its functioning and therefore desirable to have present now or later. Thse will show up again when site conditions are suitable. Different combinations are liable to occur during different stages in the recovery of the trees.
