While chasing and photographing Autumn colors in Arizona, I started at the Grand Canyon's North Rim. Many fires have occurred in this area over the past years. While the pine tree remnants of past fires remain, The aspen is quick to pioneer these areas, for their role is to re-create the correct conditions for the pines to eventually return.

Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) is the most widely distributed tree in North America. It is known by many names: trembling aspen, golden aspen, mountain aspen, popple, poplar, trembling poplar, and in Spanish, álamo blanco, and álamo temblón (49). It grows on many soil types, especially sandy and gravelly slopes, and it is quick to pioneer disturbed sites where there is bare soil. It readily colonizes burns and can hold invaded land even though subjected to fires at intervals as short as 3 years. This fast-growing tree is short lived and pure stands are gradually replaced by slower-growing species.