I like to look at before and after pictures. One of the best examples is the book of photographs that compare the photos taken on General George Custer’s 1874 expedition through the Black Hills of South Dakota, with photos taken by Ernest Grafe and Paul Horsted and published in the book Exploring With Custer: The 1874 Black Hills Expedition in 2003. The differences in vegetation help to explain why we now have larger fires that are more difficult to control.
Andrew Quilty, a photographer on the other side of the world, has done something similar, but instead of waiting 129 years for the after pictures, he took photos immediately after the February, 2009 Black Saturday fires in Australia, and then again two years later. One is on the left, and others are HERE.