As I understand it as settlers moved in to the South in the late 1700's and early 1800's the the forests were largely burned over, not like the hills of green we see to day. So it looks like the woods of the west are returning to their natural state.
You don't understand it. What happens after a stand replacing fire is a blast of even aged juveniles and (here's the part most people don't get) WEEDS. The problem is, that aggressive exotics, once established, are PERMANENT. They completely alter the habitat. Consider knapweed (now infesting large areas of Montana and Idaho). The plant dries out the surface and dries up streams over summer. It puts out a pre-emergent that prevents natives from re-establishing. That loss of groundcover accelerates erosion over 130%. Those plants requiring regular regeneration can eventually go extinct. Each knapweed plant produces thousands of seeds that spread on the wind and remain viable for ten years. It is resistive to low doses of herbicides and those that are available (such as Transline) cost $500 a gallon. Exotics are very expensive to eradicate, often requiring efforts that extend across huge areas and detailed management for as much as a century. A fire creates an open growing medium for weed transmission and little vegetation in the way of wind propagation over large distances. There is no "recovery" as you "understand it."