What happens to a forest after a forest fire?

Answer 1

What happens depends on the type of forest and the severity of the fire. Some types of forests, such as ponderosa pine forests, typically do not burn down during a fire; the fire burns the low-lying vegetation but not the trees and regrowth is quick. Other forests, such as douglas-fir forests, with a dense canopy take many decades (even over a century) to replace.

Immediately after a large-scale fire, some places will have no vegetation at all and no living trees left. If the fire occurs during the growing season, some plants will re-emerge within days after the fire. After a year, a tremendous amount of new forb and grass growth occurs. Within 4-5 years, woody plants become more evident such as bushes and sapling trees. This is a successional forest, and it is an extremely important type of habitat for plants and animals - additional sunlight fosters diverse plant growth and therefore more food sources for plant-eating animals.