Joe Vitone Photography

Secondary Succession

When an established forest is disturbed by some significant event such as a fire, the slow process leading to a future mature ecological community follows that disturbance. The dense visual, sensual, environmental matrix that forms the awesome natural beauty of a forest takes a long time to form again following a few days burning.

“The Little Bear Fire was started by a lightning strike in the White Mountain Wilderness Area in south-central New Mexico on June 4, 2012; suppression activities were instigated by the Lincoln National Forest that afternoon. A preliminary fireline had been completed around the fire perimeter by the afternoon of the 8th. However, later that day, high winds lifted fire embers beyond the fireline, leading to a fire that burned a total of 44,330 acres (35,339 on Lincoln National Forest, 357 on Mescalero Tribal land, 112 on State of New Mexico land, and 8,522 on private land), 242 houses, and 12 structures. The primary entities involved in responding to the fire were the Type 1 incident management team (IMT), the local Type 3 IMT, the U.S. Forest Service, Lincoln County Sheriff ’s Office, Lincoln County Office of Emergency Services, Village of Ruidoso, and the State of New Mexico (NM). The fire was very complex in terms of fire behavior and response coordination.” United States Department of Agriculture, Little Bear Fire Summary