Brian, hmm.....maybe I should set some fire to some ground areas. I have heard that too. About logged areas? Well, last year we had the back of our property cleared, logged, scraped, big burn pile made (huge one that has not been burned down yet). Our friend excavated, downed trees, left beautiful groves of coniferous trees, removed all hardwood (thank goodness, now the cottonwood barely flies back there), so it is very cleared and logged. I sowed the fireweed seeds all around the perimeter of the back 3 acres, narry a fireweed seed has germinated that I can see. I looked again yesterday, walking around, looking closely.
I am of the firm belief that the birds saw all the fluffy white stuff and knew there were seeds in amongst this fluff and ate them all up. I would have seen the fireweed seedlings by now for surely. Oh well, no Fireweed so far.
This fall I am going to gather seed and germinate it myself and set the seedlings out next spring. I have the greeenhouse that I can perform this task in, I don't see why it would not work. It was just such an intense job to gather this seed and spread it, KathyP can tell ya. Have a wonderful day, love the life your livin'. Cindi