There are similar places in California, that were burned in the ‘40s and ‘50s that had large stands of Jeffry, which are a close cousin to the Ponderosa, both dessert trees, and they are brushlands now with an occasional ‘Digger’ pine here and there.
No evidence of a pending rebirth of the Jeffry forests.
Pinus leiophylla var. chihuahuana
http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/tree/pinleic/all.html
People want to confuse this with the elderica... So far, a stand i know of has not burned.