But today many see natural forest processes like fire as wasteful at best and disastrous at worst. Land managers, managed by public opinion and economics as much as by science, have to respond to that view. Science says fire is good for lodgepoles, which are short-lived and at maturity often become host to the mountain pine beetle, then sicken and die. The heat and destruction also spur production of new aspen shoots, which sprout from a communal root system that survives all but the hottest fires. So fire begins the conversion of a mature, dying forest to a vital young one.
Fire benefits other plant species as well, because a mature lodgepole forest is homogenous.
The trees, all about the same age and height, grow close together, canopies overlapping. Little underbrush can grow because little sunlight breaks through. Plus, as every home gardener knows, the soil under such trees is too acidic to support most plant species. Fire makes room for a greater variety of plant species, particularly the grasses and brush that wildlife browse upon. So greater animal diversity follows the increased plant diversity.