Turns out I was wrong!
It is a different place, but it is a place that has been through this sort of fire many times through the past few million years. And it already knows what to do.
The trees, which are so beautiful and lovely, were dominant in the landscape. The ferns, the grasses, the wild flowers, which are also beautiful and lovely, were just waiting for this moment to arrive. They were waiting for fire to come and clear the path for them, so that they could proliferate and become a dominant force as well. The fire came, and they are celebrating. I have never seen so many flowers, such luscious ferns, so broad a grassy meadow, as the wilderness is now beginning to display. I will post pictures tomorrow.
I went for a visit today, and did a (previously impossible) xc trip up through the fire "ravaged" area (as in the manzanita, chinquapin and buckthorn were not impossible obstacles) and, while I do miss the trees, it was amazing to be able to navigate freely wherever I would without tall spiky barriers everywhere. I'm kinda beginning to understand where the annuals are coming from!
No, I do not yet celebrate fire. But I am amazed and pleased that the wilderness is neither saddened nor lessened by the fire. It is merely different.z
