Southern California Wildfire Recovery. The June 2016 Old Fire burned after 4 years of the most severe drought in 1,200 years. Post-fire landscapes in southern California are probably one of the most dramatic examples of vegetation recovery from apparent fire destruction, and photo series are one of the most effective educational tools to show this kind of change over time. New technology allows park visitors to become citizen scientists and actively participate in the collection of data to document this kind of change and to see the results in the future.