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1media/Flames Erupt From the River FIre in Lake County California Photo by Mark McKenna Zuma Press.jpg2019-04-07T22:30:28-07:00Sam Henrickson5cd0ff97c337b26d01e84db58bdb9506b40fff7a335194Xplain2019-04-20T18:57:04-07:00Sam Henrickson5cd0ff97c337b26d01e84db58bdb9506b40fff7aIf X is an uncontrollable, mysterious supernatural force that forces all of its subjects to bend to its power, then for plants I can think of no better X-like force than wildfires. Before mankind, almost every single forest fire would have been started by a lightning strike, a completely random stroke of bad luck that ages through bone-dry forests in the middle of summer, tearing through life and forcing a total ecosystem restart. After the emergence of humans, according to a study done by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 84% of wildfires are started by humans. Often, the most ecologically devastating fires happen after a year or so of reduced precipitation, which is not something the members of the forest affected can control. The plants are subjected to a domino-effect of systematic destruction, but there is a silver lining: the fire clears away the weaker trees and debris, turning them to ashes and adding nutritional matter to the forest soil, and gives way for new life to begin when it burns away light-preventing canopies of the older plants.
