Commentary: It’s no fairy tale: The forest is reawakening

You know the tale of the Sleeping Beauty, of course, who fell into a deep sleep while around her castle an impenetrable forest grew up. That took 100 years. But did you know we have a replica of it in the Angeles National Forest — and that took only nine years? Admittedly, it’s a downstairs version of the aristocratic story, but it makes the same point about the inexorable power of nature.

After the devastating Station fire of 2009 (was it really that long ago?) many of us wondered if the forest could ever restore itself. At that time the thick vegetation had given way to a blanket of gray ash on entire hillsides. No birds sang and the only signs of life were armies of ants, foraging for whatever scraps of food they could find.

Amazingly, to us faint hearts, the undergrowth has sprung up more luxuriant than before. Blackened old trees, killed by the fire, are surrounded by fresh green bushes. Some trails, once easy throughways, became choked with vegetation, almost impossible to break through.

The sleepy princess, however, would have understood. On a ridge that looks one way toward the ocean and the other to the barren canyons to the north, an old picnic table has sat for years with views of both. I have often paused there and wondered how many people know a view like something out of the Old Testament exists 20 miles from downtown Los Angeles.

I was there last weekend, though now it is hemmed in on all sides, more like an animal’s den than a viewpoint, and even more isolated than ever. Normally that feeling of being on my own with nature is just what I want. This time, however, I couldn’t fight down a slight regret that poking among the bushes I didn’t come across an enchanting blond just waking up from a refreshing hundred-year nap.

Reg Green’s website is www.nicholasgreen.org.