The Biscuit Fire has important lessons for us, about the effects of wildfire on forest ecosystems. Our study—above all else—demonstrates that interactions of wildfire with ecosystem processes and conditions can create very complex patterns of response.  Complex responses from previous fires likely created much of the high small-scale spatial variability described for these sites (Homann et al. 2001).  We also have documented important temporal complexities.  For example, many legacies from the last fire, about 110 years ago, persisted until fire returned.  Legacies include hardwood mid-canopy trees (tanoak, madrone, and others), over-mature knobcone pines (with serotinous cones), and apparent seed banks in the soil. We expect that Biscuit legacies, by extrapolation, will likely last to the next fire. Spatial and temporal complexities are extended by other uncertainties and surprises about ecosystem processes (such as possible plume-driven soil loss and a damping effect on fire by mid-canopy hardwoods, discussed later). The general conclusions are supported by results from our study.  We found that the degree that ecosystems were affected by the fire was determined in part by pre-fire management, and that these various outcomes hold different consequences for future ecosystem development, including future fire risks. Some widely held views on the magnitudes and even directions of management effects were not well supported.  The most extreme effects of fire on soils that we observed at stand scales should be long-lasting, suggesting that special interest should be paid to pioneering plants that can help rebuild nutrient pools.  Soil development itself was substantially affected in many places.  New insights into soils, forest productivity, and diversity in forests with frequent fire-return intervals are likely with continued investigation.