“Not all fire is bad.”
For Randy Mandel, Senior Environmental Consultant at CTEH, that statement is more than ecological truth. It is a mindset shift that challenges how communities, agencies, and industries think about wildfire response. Fire can destroy, but it can also renew. The outcome depends on understanding the landscape before it burns and acting with foresight instead of fear.
Seeing the Fire Before It Starts
Across the country, wildfire often signals crisis. Yet from an ecological perspective, it is also an essential natural process. For centuries, Indigenous peoples used controlled burns to keep forests and grasslands healthy. Modern fire suppression changed that rhythm, leaving ecosystems vulnerable. When ignition finally occurs, the fires burn with greater intensity and duration, amplifying their impact on the landscape.
Mandel and his team study the full spectrum of conditions that shape a burn—from what exists before the fire to what follows after. “You begin thinking retrospectively, what existed in that system before the fire,” he explains. “If you understand that, you understand what you are trying to restore.”
CTEH’s environmental experts examine vegetation composition, watershed vulnerability, and other key factors. Their analysis can help clients understand how their landscapes will behave under these stressors. That clarity then allows for strategic planning rather than reaction.
The Science of Resilience
When wildfires strike, they alter more than the surface. Severe burns can change water absorption in the soil, release toxins from surrounding natural and manufactured materials, and trigger sediment flows. While CTEH’s work covers the full lifecycle of environmental recovery, much of its recent effort has centered on the devastation left by today’s record-breaking wildfires— helping landscapes and communities regain balance.
Mandel believes recovery should move beyond restoration of what was lost. “Our goal is not to just return things to what they were,” he says. “It is to help these environments become stronger for what is coming next.”
Diversity is central to that philosophy. Beyond the return of vegetation, a resilient landscape depends on the right mix of life. Biodiversity creates that balance, allowing each species to play its role in stabilizing soil, cycling nutrients, and providing habitat. Native plants, in particular, are adapted to the unique pressures of their environment, offering the foundation for lasting recovery.
“When you reintroduce a broad mix of native plants, each with its own genetic strengths, you give the ecosystem options,” Mandel explains. “It can adjust and adapt.” That diversity acts as a form of insurance, enabling systems to absorb disturbance and rebuild in ways that are stronger, more stable, and better suited for the challenges ahead.
Lessons from the Field
Mandel’s work across the landscape has shown that the most enduring solutions are those rooted in local ecology. Nature already holds the blueprint for recovery—it simply needs the chance to express it. At a high-altitude restoration site in Colorado’s White River National Forest, Mandel and Madelene Lockner, Nature Restoration Specialist and Associate Environmental Consultant at CTEH, collaborated closely to design and implement a restoration strategy shaped by the land itself. Lockner serves as Mandel’s right hand on many projects, bringing specialized expertise in native plant restoration and field implementation.
Together, the team collected seeds directly from the area they would later restore. Those plants, adapted to the thin air, steep slopes, and fluctuating temperatures of their native range, became the foundation for renewal. This site-specific approach recognized that resilience cannot be imported. “If we do our job right,” Mandel says, “you should not be able to tell there was a problem. The land heals into itself.” Every decision is guided by the surrounding system’s natural rhythm.
That philosophy extends across wildfire recovery efforts in places like California and New Mexico, where CTEH integrates biological restoration with structural and hydrologic repair. The goal is to rebuild not just stability, but ecological function. “We treat each project as a living system,” Mandel explains. “You are not just engineering land. You are restoring relationships between the soil, water, and life.”
The Human Side of Ecology
Science is only part of the story. Restoration succeeds when people are engaged. “You have to listen to communities,” Mandel says. “You find the local champion, the person who knows the land and the history, and build from there.”
CTEH remains engaged long after the immediate response, evolving with the land and those who depend on it. From early risk assessments and emergency response to long-term remediation and restoration, our company provides continuity of expertise that ensures environmental and community recovery remain aligned.
Remediation is a critical part of that continuum. By combining environmental forensics, risk assessment, and ecological modeling, CTEH helps clients design data-driven remediation strategies that reduce hazards, rebuild ecological function, and support long-term stability. That technical precision is matched by presence and accountability. “You cannot just arrive after a fire, fix the damage, and leave,” Mandel adds. “You must stay involved and walk with them through the process.”
Rethinking What Comes Next
Fires are becoming more frequent and more complex, creating both a challenge and an opportunity for CTEH. We work to transform how organizations prepare for and recover from natural disasters.
Mandel believes the next generation of environmental planning must blend data with empathy. “Science tells us what is happening,” he says. “Resilience depends on how we respond, how we choose to rebuild, and how we learn from what the land is teaching us.”
CTEH turns that learning into action—helping communities and ecosystems move beyond survival toward enduring strength.
