Megafires and Multiplication: Catalysts of Creation

Post-wildfire studies in the cascades of
Oregon show increases in wildlife pop-
ulations amidst stressful environments,
counter to Darwinian predictions 

Megafires, Multiplication and the Limits of Darwinian Predictions 

 By Dr. Sarah Buckland-Reynolds 

In 2020, the state of Oregon experienced its most destructive wildfire season, impacting over one million acres. Its typical lush, mountainous conifer forests, rivers and streams were severely impacted, with cleanup, debris removal and recovery efforts lasting well over a year, continuing into 2021. From a Darwinian lens, this event would have been interpreted as a prime example of a selective pressure event for wildlife in the area. However, recent research has shown evidence of outcomes countering Darwinian predictions. 

Following megafires fishes thrive and amphibians persist even in severely burned watersheds (Swartz et al., Nature Communications, Earth and Environment. 21 November, 2025). In this seminal paper, researchers at Oregon State report findings from their three-year longitudinal study, measuring taxonomic densities and biomass across 18 species in 30 fourth-order streams. Rather than an expected population decline, the researchers predominantly found a proliferation of species in the region. This Oregon case study provides a striking case to be examined where ecological outcomes defy Darwinian expectations. 

Scientific Findings: Thriving Amid Megafires 

Classical evolutionary theory often predicts that stress acts as a narrowing filter, reducing populations and eliminating “less fit” organisms. Yet, in the aftermath of megafires in Oregon, fishes thrived and amphibians persisted (with only frog densities negatively affected), even under elevated stream temperatures and altered habitats.  

The authors reported: 

Despite concern, especially for cold-water adapted species, our findings show that fishes thrived, and amphibians and crayfish persisted in post-fire and post-fire salvaged sites in the western Cascade Range in Oregon within the first three years post-fire. Greater total fish, amphibian and crayfish densities were found in sites with greater fire severity….

As the authors noted, these findings are especially counterintuitive in the context of cold water adapted species. In their words: 

Despite stream temperatures that often exceeded 20°C and reached up to 27.4°C, warmer sites with greater burn severity had higher fish populations and larger YOY [“young of the year”] trout. 

Under Classical Darwinian assumptions, predictions are that scenarios of such elevated stream temperatures, reduced canopy cover, and altered nutrient regimes, which all occurred during and in the aftermath of the Oregon wildfires, should reduce populations. This prediction would especially be made of cold-water adapted species. Yet, the study showed that stress expanded the pool instead of shrinking it.   

This conundrum prompted the authors to acknowledge “uncertainty” in their conclusions, urging more research. As they put it: 

…the long-term influences and dynamic aspects of wildfire and post-fire forest management on aquatic ecosystems remain uncertain and must be considered in combination with the evolutionary mechanisms of native species in these systems. 

Yet why should “uncertainty” overshadow the striking results observed in the immediate aftermath of such a shock event?

In the face of evidence violating Darwinian assumptions, is it really reasonable to insist that these findings be framed “in combination with evolutionary mechanisms,” when the data itself points to resilience and multiplication rather than attrition?

Limits of Darwinian Predictive Power 

The case study of Oregon does not stand on its own as an outlier of rapid post-disaster recovery. Today, it is documented in earthday.org, “When Nature Leads: Remarkable stories of ecosystem recovery,” August 22, 2025 that post-war zones, such as the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and the Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique, as well as other regions that have faced major ecological disturbances stand as testimony to rapid ecological rebound, with a proliferation of species exceeding its pre-disturbance ecology. 

This growing evidence highlights significant limits in the predictive power of Darwinian theory in several ways: 

• Speed of recovery: The Darwinian expectation of the slow and steady gradual accumulation of adaptive traits is met with the reality of rapid proliferation of variation or reproduction.  

• Selection pressure vs. activator of pre-built resilience: Instead of selection acting on existing variation followed by gradual colonization by tolerant species, stress appears to activate new variations and uncover latent tolerances in existing populations, including the persistence of sensitive taxa. In this way, stress appears to act as an activator, rather than merely a filter to remove ‘unfit’ organisms. 

• Population totals: Instead of a population decline under stress, growing evidence shows that some populations thrive by multiplying under adversity. 

• Persistence beyond physiological limits: Cold-water species like trout and tailed frogs were expected to decline under stream temperatures exceeding 20°C. Instead, they persisted and even thrived. 

• Non-linear stress response relationships and assemblage stability: Despite disturbance, assemblage structures remained relatively stable over time, even in severely burned watersheds. This resilience frustrates predictions of collapse and highlights the inadequacy of the Darwinian model that assumes linear stress-response relationships. 

Although the authors attribute their findings to evolution, the data arguably better supports an epigenetic model, an adaptive mechanism that is often sidelined in these discussions. Epigenetics involves gene regulations being activated or deactivated based on environmental conditions, including stressors. Growing evidence published in 

“Genomic and Epigenomic Influences on Resilience across Scales: Lessons from the Responses of Fish to Environment Stressors,” in Oxford Academic’s Integrative and Comparative Biology, April 17, 2024 

and 

“Understanding and applying biological resilience, from genes to ecosystems,” in Nature npj Biodiversity, August 28, 2023 

has already shown that organisms have displayed significant resilience during disturbance events through control mechanisms such as DNA methylation, histone modification, and non-coding RNAs without altering the genetic code itself. In this way, instead of random mutations, epigenetics shows a mechanism of pre-programmed flexibility, with systems designed to anticipate stress. Physiological tolerances, and even developmental plasticity (e.g., earlier maturity in trout after fire) are controlled by the activation of genetic expression in the face of stress, which remain latent in low stress scenarios.  

Creation Obeys: Fruitfulness Under Stress

Interestingly, one of the first commands in Scripture that God gave to His creation is to “be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth”. In many accounts of history in Scripture (both with animal kind and humankind), such multiplication has often been seen not to be thwarted by stress but often catalyzed by it. 

For example, when the Children of Israel were in Egypt, it is documented that: “… the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so, the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites.” (Exodus 1:12). Under Darwinian assumptions, oppression could be interpreted as selective pressure, yet the people flourished numerically. 

God maintained this stance of prioritizing multiplication during stress in other points of Israel’s history. For example, in Jeremiah 29:5–6, while the Israelites were once again in exile, God commanded His people: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters… increase in number there; do not decrease.” Even in foreign captivity, multiplication was the divine directive. 

Could it be that what we observe among organisms in post-stress habitats in creation is merely obedience to this divine directive of old? 

Could it be that multiplication under stress is not a random accident, but a purposeful resilience embedded in creation? 

As the Oregon case study shows, post-stress habitats defy Darwinian predictions. Intelligent design offers a richer framework, recognizing resilience as embedded within organisms’ genetic code. Creation is designed for continuity, even when conditions appear hostile. 

The words of Genesis 1:28: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” continue to echo in creation. Even under stress, life itself testifies to the wisdom of the Designer: God.

Dr. Sarah Buckland-Reynolds is a Christian, Jamaican, Environmental Science researcher, and journal associate editor. She holds the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Geography from the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona with high commendation, and a postgraduate specialization in Geomatics at the Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia. The quality of her research activity in Environmental Science has been recognized by various awards including the 2024 Editor’s Award from the American Meteorological Society for her reviewing service in the Weather, Climate and Society Journal, the 2023 L’Oreal/UNESCO Women in Science Caribbean Award, the 2023 ICETEX International Experts Exchange Award for study in Colombia. and with her PhD research in drought management also being shortlisted in the top 10 globally for the 2023 Allianz Climate Risk Award by Munich Re Insurance, Germany. Motivated by her faith in God and zeal to positively influence society, Dr. Buckland-Reynolds is also the founder and Principal Director of Chosen to G.L.O.W. Ministries, a Jamaican charitable organization which seeks to amplify the Christian voice in the public sphere and equip more youths to know how to defend their faith.