Wildfires, as we have recently seen, can burn acres of land and grow completely out of control in a matter of minutes.

Fire can be fueled by many things, including weather, dry brush, drought and wind. There are three conditions that must be met for wildfires to burn. First is an ignition source such as lightning, a campfire, a cigarette, a spark from a car or a tool such as a saw, downed power lines, the sun hitting a shard of discarded glass, or arson.

Most wildfires are started by humans. In fact, four out of five are caused by people, either by accident, through carelessness, or intentionally.

Four to five million acres of forest are damaged by wildfire each year. Although wildfires occur throughout our 50 states, they are most common in the West because of drought, heat, extremely dry brush and winds such as the Santa Ana winds for which we are known.

People tend to detest fire because it changes the natural landscape from green and inviting to black, grey and uninviting. Smoke can bring on asthma attacks and other breathing maladies. If poison oak is burned, the toxic oil, urushiol, can become airborne and cause problems for people who breathe it in, or who may come into contact with the oil once it has settled.

Fire burns homes, cars, businesses, factories, and it can kill people. It can also kill our local wildlife, leaving an uninhabitable, dangerous, lifeless zone behind.

But even the worst wildland fires have a good side. In fact, California needs fire to rejuvenate. Many plants cannot grow until after a fire has occurred. These plants are called fire followers. The heat from fire causes the dormant seeds of plants and pines to crack open, which allows the plants to grow. These seeds may have been waiting for years for fire to come along. The charred landscape is rich in nitrogen and phosphorus, which are perfect to launch these little plants into the brilliant hillside flower shows that so often follow a fire.

Some fire followers are: poodle dog bush, golden eardrops, bush poppies, fire poppies, white and pink snapdragon, whispering bells, popcorn flower, scarlet larkspur and many more. With rain, we could be seeing the type of floral display that has eluded us for many years.

Oak trees, even when burned down to the ground, can come back. You might notice the oak stump sending up sprouts in spring. Each of these little “stump sprouts” will form a new trunk.

On your next walk in open space, look for oak trees with multiple trunks. That tree was burned at some point, but it recovered to live many more years.

Pine trees do not recover as well with exposure to fire, and even if they struggle to come back, they usually become victim to beetles and die.

After every fire there is controversy: To plant or not to plant? That is the question.

Scarlet larkspur

There is a local organization that is paid well to plant pine trees in the forest following fire. While this sounds like a great idea, the truth is that 80 percent of those trees die. They are planted in the winter months and without consistent rain, they won’t make it.

Volunteers plant those trees, and they usually don’t do it correctly. They leave pockets of air in the roots and do not sufficiently protect the crown. There is usually not sufficient rain to keep those little trees alive. In my opinion, a 20 percent survival rate is not good enough.

Poodle dog bush

Nature has a way of healing herself. After the Station Fire, I noticed lots of little baby trees popping up through the blackened surface. Interestingly enough, the poodle dog bush, a fire follower, was protecting those little trees with shade and breaking up the surface so that rain water would be available for those little trees. Poodle dog bush usually dies within eight years after a fire, giving the little trees long enough to be well on their way without the continued protection of the poodle dog bush.

If you’ve been affected by fire and hate seeing your green view-shed turned black, be patient. Nature will do her thing, and it will come back. Nature is a great healer.

Dianne Erskine-Hellrigel is executive director of the Community Hiking Club and president of the Santa Clara River Watershed Conservancy. Contact Dianne through communityhikingclub.org or at zuliebear@aol.com.

Popcorn flowers