After the Wildfire, the Wildflowers

In November 2018, the Camp Fire reduced the town of Paradise, California, to ash. Ninety percent of the structures were gone. Residents who returned found nothing but charred foundations and blackened earth stretching to the horizon. The soil itself looked dead. Then spring came. By March 2019, something no one expected began pushing through the scorched ground. Wildflowers — lupines, poppies, and baby blue eyes — erupted across the burn scar in numbers locals had never seen.…