About 10 or 11 years ago a friend and I designed a slide show presentation for Parks Canada, Western Canada Parks on the ecology of wildfire. Fire is an essential part of almost all of the world's ecosystems, and while the original impact may appear devestating, within a few months you should be amazed at the changes. You should have a lot of different greens to photograph!!
Mike.
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You're quite right of course Mike, our Victoria (the state in Australia, not the city in BC) is known as the bush fire capital of the world and so, generally, country people are very aware and reasonably educated about the risks and results of bush fires; though probably fewer are aware of the part fire plays in our ecosystem. In 2003 we had an even larger area than these fires burn in our alpine region (puny compared to the Rockies) and an awful lot was learned studying the burnt areas about the ecology of bush fires.
Now a confession, this morning I was able to get down and have a closer look at the river. The actual stream bed didn't burn (sounds funny but because of drought the river is not actually flowing, just pools), and, in fact, standing in the spot where I took the photographs, it's not easy to see that a fire has passed through - mostly.
The river flows in a deep channel 30 feet deep and 50-60 yards wide. The sides of that channel have been incinerated with only the large fully grown trees remaining - literally scorched charred earth.
So, good and bad, and we're still here to observe, enjoy and anticipate the changes you mention. Exciting times without the adrenalin rush that kept us going for a couple of weeks now.
Cheers, and thanks too to Lisa.