I apologize for not having a pithy and thought-provoking post this week. I’m actually working on a couple different ideas, but was interrupted by a couple days of good prescribed fire weather. We had a long day yesterday and today looks like it’ll be another.
I can at least post a few photos from our fires yesterday. We completed a fire in one of our restored prairies that will be grazed this year, and then had time to light off a small island in a nearby restored wetland.
Here are those photos:
Mardell Jasnowski lights the headfire near the end of yesterday’s prescribed burn in a 2001 prairie restoration. The Nature Conservancy’s Platte River Prairies, Nebraska.
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Big flames from tall grass. The burned area will be grazed intensively by cattle this season while unburned areas will receive little grazing pressure.
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Burn crew member Aric Ping keeps the fire inside the mowed firebreak with a high-pressure spray of water.
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Fire burns on a small island in a restored wetland. The burn will encourage shorebird use this spring, suppress the growth of willow trees, and make it easier for us to find and control reed canarygrass this summer.
