After the Fire: Ecological Wonders in Burned Areas

Name: After the Fire: Ecological Wonders in Burned Areas
Start: 2026-04-15T18:00:00-06:00
End: 2026-04-15T19:30:00-06:00
Location: 120 Hickory St, Suite A, Missoula, MT, United States, Montana 59801

Schedule

Wed Apr 15 2026 at 06:00 pm to 07:30 pm

UTC-06:00

Location

120 Hickory St, Suite A, Missoula, MT, United States, Montana 59801 | Missoula, MT

Date: Wednesday, April 15
Time: 6:00 – 7:30 p.m.
Location: Montana Natural History Center
Cost: $10 MNHC members/$15 non-members
Please join MNHC and Jane Kapler Smith for a fascinating look into post-fire landscapes and the wonders you can find there.
Every square foot of dry land in our region has probably burned in the past thousand years. This heritage of fire has shaped every ecosystem in our wildlands; it has given us much of the diversity in wild landscapes that delights us; and, over many millennia, it has shaped our native species themselves.
So why not get into a burned area this summer and look for some of the botanical treasures that show up only in the first decade or two after fire? This lecture/demonstration can help you get ready for your summer explorations. Jane will suggest some recent burns to visit, describe how to recognize differences in fire severity within a burn, and show how plants can survive a fire and even have their best, most productive years in the decades that follow.
Light refreshments provided.
About the instructor: Jane Kapler Smith has an M.S. in Forest Ecology from Colorado State University and a B.A. in English and Theatre from Alverno College, Milwaukee. She worked in fire control and management in Glacier National Park during the 1970s. In the 1980s, she completed research on fire effects in quaking aspen stands in northern Colorado. From 1992-2015, she worked at the Fire Science Laboratory in Missoula, MT, developing literature reviews on fire effects (https://www.feis-crs.org/feis/) and an educational curriculum on wildland fire (https://www.frames.gov/fireworks/home). She has been VERY happily retired for 10 years.