In 2018, the François Lake wildfire swept through a swathe of British Columbia’s interior, leaving behind a vast cemetery of grey-white trees. A ghostly forest, but not a forest of ghosts. A ghostly forest, but not a forest of ghosts. Watched over by these eerie sentinels, the landscape, now humming with butterflies and bees, is carpeted by tiny white flowers that will soon erupt into wild strawberries. Fireweed, raspberries, dandelions and rose bushes — fertilized by ash and nurtured by sun no longer impeded by shadowy trees — also burst forth from the earth. All perfect bear food.

In the distance, a solitary moose, another sign of the landscape returning, stands close to a small, round lake. “They’ll have a good time scaring the ducks,” Angelika Langen of Northern Lights Wildlife Societ

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