Arizona’s first modern megafire raged through ponderosa pines 20 years ago this month, burning deep scars that still reveal themselves on the landscape atop the Mogollon Rim.
How the forest recovers — if it does — will depend on the actions of forest and land managers two decades later and the effects of a changing climate in the future.
To a forester who hadn’t witnessed the radical changes that warming temperatures and lengthening fire seasons have imposed on northern Arizona, the regrowth in the 468,638-acre burn scar of the 2002 Rodeo-Chediski Fire might look like it’s proceeding on schedule.
