By the time the largest fire in Southern California history was over, 15 people died, more than 2,000 homes were burned to the ground, and much of the Cuyamaca forest — the place in my county to which I am most attached — was gone. Trees estimated to be 800 years old were turned to charcoal. The fire burned so hot that boulders the size of houses exploded, and in some areas, the buried seed stock of native plants designed by nature to thrive after fires, were destroyed.

This year good work will grow out of the ashes, just as green grass grows out of the ashes of the burnt chaparral, for along with the destruction came something unexpected.

Just as fire and flood has taken its toll on programs that connect people to the natural world, some of the special places offering nature programs for children in my region were destroyed or damaged by our fire. Candy Vanderhoff, the architectural designer who for two years had devoted herself to the establishment of Crestridge Ecological Reserve — the mountainous land where high school students confronted the wonders and peculiarities of the backcountry — reported that most of the reserve was burned away.

Read the full article on fire and fermentation by Richard Louv at Children & Nature Network