Death and Transfiguration

We have again passed the high holy days where we undergo the purifying rituals of renewal and celebrate death and resurrection. I am speaking, of course, of the annual prairie burn, which happened yesterday at Bluff Spring Fen. (What, did you think I was talking about a different holiday?) As I have mentioned her before, prairies are fire-dominated ecosystems. Without periodic fires, invasive shrubs and trees move in and shade out the native plant communities. Other organisms, like insects, that depend on these communities to survive also vanish.

In my holiday finery

Each spring, the stewards of Bluff Spring Fen don our holiday vestments, which in this case means fire-retardant Nomex jumpsuits and preform prescribed burning on the site. We use a drip torch, a canister of fuel designed to drip flaming drops of liquid to start the fire. The flames are controlled by water backpacks with spray nozzles, and flappers, which are squares of flexible rubber on rake handles.

Part of the work crew. Sue (facing away from the camera) is wearing a water backpack.

Me with flapper. Does this Nomex make me look fat?

We carefully burn a perimeter around the downwind side of the area we plan to burn. The flames burn slowly into the wind, and we extinguish the edge of the fire that wants to burn with the wind. This creates a fuel-free black zone that the fire can’t carry through. They we go to the upwind side of the area that we want to burn, start the fire, and let ‘er rip.

Steve uses the drip torch to start the burn perimeter.

The fire that follows can be quite dramatic. In the picture below, we are burning through a cattail marsh. The highest flames are reaching about 40 feet off of the ground. The column of smoke that we produced could be seen 10 miles away.

A 40-foot high wall of flame advances through the cattail marsh.

Following the fire, the prairie looks blackened and lifeless. But this isn’t the case. Prairie plants evolved with the influence of fire. They are deep rooted species, and will sprout vigorously from the underground parts in the weeks following the burn. I’ll try to follow up with some photo documentation of the greening up of the burned areas over the next few weeks.

Scorched earth- and the promise of a new growing season

Despite difficult conditions for burning this year (it’s been a very wet spring), we got a good burn in yesterday, and I look forward to a beautiful growing season at the Fen this coming year.