I live in the Boreal forest of Northwestern Ontario--it is a fire-driven ecology. I've seen some catistrophic burns that burned to bald rock. They might stay black for a few years but eventually they too green up and then get thick as a jungle. Good for fur and game. A lot of big Pine and Spruce die and then lodge in the wind over the course of years. Seems a few big pines always survive too.
I think the guy was lamenting the loss of his big cottonwoods--they're all dead. He showed me a bottom that was still black and had burned a couple of years ago. All the large cottonwood were dead and bark starting to peel--looks like they would eventually come down from the wind if not from flood first. Surely those bottoms must see floods from time to time.
Even the bottom that burned last Summer had some grass and was full of deer--both whitetails and muleys and I saw a couple of Sharptails and hundreds of pheasents.
