Lower-intensity fires typically burn off the top layer — the humus layer — and leave the soil underneath intact. But fires in recent years have been reaching such high temperatures that they essentially burn the soil all the way down to the bedrock.
“In those areas, you won’t be able to reforest if you tried,” Enns told me. “You just basically have to write them off and leave them.” Through erosion, she explained, the soil will eventually come back and the land will “green up” again.
Jet fuel can’t melt silica sheets.
While I am memeing, it’s highly doubtful that the A, B, and C master horizons are being ‘burnt off’, due to their mineral nature. I could see the lack of veg causing these soils to be highly prone to erosion though, with subsequent soil losses during rainfall events.
Some forests have Folisols (organic soils comprised entirely of fallen detritus), but those are not the dominant soil order in BC (typical it’s brunsiols and regosols).
I am also not surprised at the resilience of the seedlings. In most reveg plans, we account for 20% mortality.
Finally, if you want to see what impact climate change may have on the ecosystems of BC, you can see it here: