In the Santa Catalina Mountains north of Tucson, soil repels water across the burn scar of the 2020 Bighorn Fire. Steep slopes and an imminent monsoon mean the hydrophobic ground is ripe for erosion.
In the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests of eastern Arizona, the remnants of salvage logging, thinning operations and prescribed fires mark the areas burned by two of the state's largest wildfires, the Wallow, in 2011, and Rodeo-Chediski, in 2002. Saplings are seeding near truncated stumps throughout the scorched landscape, hinting at the natural regeneration slowly taking root amid the long-term aftermath of the flames...