A fire made this meadow, not so long ago, by burning the forest. Now the forest is coming back. Young white spruce, jack pines, willows and trembling aspens are again invading the meadow. Can you spot the charred remains of the last forest, or the tiny shoots of the new one in the grass?
Unless the fire comes back again soon this little patch of prairie, and its few remaining potentilla shrubs, is destined to vanish. But not forever. In the natural world there is always a progression of events called "succession," for the landscape is forever changing. The change may be gradual, as in the takeover of a meadow by the surrounding forest, or catastrophic, when fire rages through, and in one hot sweep restores the grass to temporary dominance.
