My MS and PhD research projects involved use of a comparative approach to science and a good deal of wanderlust associated with data collection. After assuming my role as a member of the zoology faculty, I continued to incorporate a passion for wanderlust into my research. When the fires of 1988 hit Yellowstone, I found myself in a great position to conduct bird surveys in an unprecedented of number of burned forests. The patterns I found were life changing because of the presence of plant and animal species not easily found under any kind of unburned forest condition.