Wildfire frequency and severity are increasing as a result of climate change compounded by forest management histories in the Rocky Mountain West. Fire and changes to the disturbance regime alter vegetation, soil biogeochemistry and thus carbon cycling, with the possibility of forcing positive ecosystem feedbacks that further contribute to global climate change. To understand the impacts of pile burning as a management technique and as a proxy for the impacts of severe wildfire, this study analyses a 60-year chronosequence of burn pile scars and surrounding regenerating clear cut Lodgepole pine forest to investigate biogeochemical changes to severely burned soils over time. Soil was characterized and soil incubation experiments were conducted to measure microbial respiration and bioavailability rates. Soils in burn pile scars had less carbon and lower respiration rates compared to regenerating forest soils. Nonlinear recovery of respiration and bioavailability rates, as well as the altered quality of the SOM pool in burn pile soils, suggests that persistent changes to vegetation, soil chemistry, and soil microbial community cause long-term shifts in nutrient cycling and carbon fluxes following burning. Burn pile scars sequester less carbon for more than 60 years after disturbance and may show permanent shifts in ecosystem structure. Used as a proxy for increasing wildfire severity, these results indicate that the Rocky Mountain West is vulnerable to permanent stand structure shifts and a change to becoming a carbon source. Alterations to carbon cycling and ecosystem structure following pile burning and wildfire are essential for land managers to consider in planning for the continued provisioning of ecosystem services.