Image Index

Most Americans, when they think of a forest fire, imagine something like this wildfire that raged through California's San Bernardino Mountains in 2003. But some forest fires are beneficial, and some ecosystems are actually dependent on fire.

Figure 1. Longleaf pines, along with many other species, not only adapted to frequent fires but became dependent on them. This savanna was burned two years before the photograph was taken.

Figure 2. This forest was burned only two months before the photograph was taken.

Figure 3. This forest is burned at three-year intervals.

Figure 4. Forests burned at five-year intervals regenerate less consistently.

Figure 5. Red cockaded woodpeckers nest in the marked trees.

Figure 6. These hardwoods have been partially, but not completely, destroyed by fire.

Figure 7. Wire grass provides the fuel for the fires that sustain longleaf pine savannas.

Figure 8. A “controlled burn” leaves the mature pines untouched.

Figure 9. The controlled burn is visible in the distance, but only as smoke.

Figure 10. The leaves and stems of wire grass have been burned away, but will soon return.

Figure 11. Hardwoods are beginning to regenerate after a controlled burn.

Figure 12. The savanna meets a pocosin wetland.

Figure 13. The Venus flytrap is probably the most famous predatory plant.

Figure 14. The rough-leaf loosestrife is extremely rare.

Figure 15. The Carolina sunflower.

Figure 16. A low pocosin wetland (foreground) and pond pine woodland (background) are two other rare plant communities found in Camp Lejune.

Figure 17. This cypress savanna is flooded only part of the year.

Figure 18. This swamp is a more typical habitat for cypress trees.