Alder grew in the understory of the native lodgepole pine forests, which had regenerated across the sweeping glaciated interior plateau following the fires ignited by settlers laying railroad and searching for gold in the late 1800s. A century later, these forests were clear-cut with feller bunchers—tractors with a mechanical arm wielding a saw—and the unlucky alders were either crushed by the wheels or cut along with the pines. With the overstory gone, light shined on the sheared-off alder stumps, which sprouted a multitude of new branches and leaves. Water and soil resources abounded. It was
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