It's Time to Build

Biological Parallel

After wildfires clear Yellowstone, lodgepole pines germinate from serotinous cones that require fire's heat to open. Within months, 100,000 seedlings per acre carpet the ash—a building boom exploiting the cleared landscape. 'Time to build' is ecological succession: recognizing when disturbance has reset competitive dynamics. The opportunity isn't the crisis itself, but the temporary absence of incumbent species that normally monopolize resources.