April 24, 2015

Scorched earth.

P1140024

In Governor Nelson State Park today.

P1140019

ADDED: Some commenters were puzzled by the scorching, but it's routine and unpuzzling to us. Here's an old post from 2009 — "Smoldering landscape. 'Looks like the day after a battle.' 'Did we just stumble into a forest fire?'":
[W]e ran into the forestry worker who was managing the burning — "prescribed fire" — there in Cherokee Marsh, and he explained how he did it and why. Black cherry trees are always threatening to clutter up the space under the big oaks, and red osier dogwood, if left to their own devices, would turn the marsh into a place where the cranes can't walk.
What I wanted people to notice were those humps distributed through the charred field! Those are huge ant hills, and I can verify that the ants did not perish in the fire. They were alive and kicking.

27 comments:

Fandor said...

What happen?

Mark said...

Late this year. Many grassland birds have already arrived.

Our local prairie was burned a month ago, probably will get some of Nelson's birds for the next few weeks (peak migration for many birds).

Next week the warblers arrive and I will be on the creek trail every morning for a few weeks. Its about to be the best bird month of the year in Madison.

chickelit said...

Natural potash

chickelit said...

Revisit in a few weeks and notice what reemerges first.

tim in vermont said...

I never understood why ash trees had that name until I learned recently that they were the best tree to burn for potash, which was used for cleaning wool, and fetched a fair price in colonial days. Basically almost every hardwood in the Northeast was burned for that, the ashes piled in boats, and shipped off to England.

Lewis Wetzel said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lewis Wetzel said...

Fandor said...

What happen?

A Dragon happened. Haven't you seen Desolation of Smaug, Fandor? Geez.
In the elvish language of Quenya, spoken in Middle-Earth, "Fandor" means "Bearded land". You should know this.

SteveBrooklineMA said...

Is this a new thing? I've seen many plots of grass being burned in town this year. We've all heard it's part of the "natural cycle", but I've never seen such a wide controlled burn effort being made.

Sdv1949 said...

City kids. The prairie should be burned at least every 2-3 years to keep down invasive weeds and to help the native forbs to germinate. Around here (SE Nebr) at lot of it gets burned every year.

Leon said...

Give it two weeks

MadisonMan said...

Horicon marsh was burned yesterday. Link.

I believe you could see the burn at Gov Nelson yesterday as well, from Campus.

george said...

Sadly, the top pic reminds me of the Pennsylvania fields after the Battle of Gettysburg.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I don't understand the "I'm proud" accolades? to Bruce Jenner for transitioning out of the gender he was born into.

Up to this point I associated this type of recognition? with people who had overcome an addiction or something like that.

I didn't see the interview, but I don't think Bruce Jenner is saying he/she regrets her past.

I don't think I've ever been more confused by the actions of people in my whole life. Maybe I have and I just don't recall.

Annie said...

How appropriate.

A gofundme account was set up for Sweet Cakes by Melissa in Oregon because a judge has fined them $135k for refusing to make a gay wedding cake..even though they have been served in all other aspects. They have already lost their business and this will break them. They have five kids.

http://danaloeschradio.com/lesbian-couple-claims-mental-rape-at-refusal-of-wedding-cake

And now gofundme removed the campaign because it 'violated' their terms and conditions as the bakery owners broke the law and are now criminals. Disregarding that this is still being litigated and Oregon is violating their 1st Amendment rights.

They can't even raise money to help with legal and domestic bills to stay off welfare.

I was on the fence regarding 'gay marriage'. Not anymore. Go pound sand, gaystapo.

Scorched earth, indeed.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Thanks for the tip Annie

Humperdink said...

Kudos to the YSU students for hanging the "straight pride" posters on campus. Sums up my views to a T.

Of course the were immediately removed. The posters should be replicated and distributed nation wide.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/04/24/youngstown-state-university-student-government-removes-straight-pride-posters/

AllenS said...

It's called a controlled burn. It's done every year around here to control unwanted trees and weeds from taking control on land that the DNR wants to look like what they think the original prairie ground looked like. They probably seeded the land down some years ago with prairie grasses.

Fritz said...

Back in the 80s when I lived in Corvallis Oregon, vast swaths of the surrounding Willamette Valley were dedicated to growing grass for grass seed. Every year in fall, the farmers would burn the fields, allegedly to kill the weeds that came in, and help the grass stay a monoculture. They tried to make sure it was a day the wind was blowing away from the town or I-5 (where the smoke was sometimes thick enough to cause traffic accidents), but sometimes the wind changed.

I don't know if they still do that.

iowan2 said...

Contrast The straight pride posters being removed by authorities, because GAY, with the authorities at south Georgia university condoning protests that feature walking on the Flag. Condoning to the extent that they arrested a Veteran for picking up the defiled Flag

Bob R said...

If it's a controlled burn, why do they leave the green path?

AllenS said...

Green grass does not burn.

dustbunny said...

The top photo looks like an Anselm Kiefer painting

Curious George said...

Here's how you get the ants

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGJ2jMZ-gaI

AllenS said...

Local controlled burn information:

https://www.facebook.com/StCroixWMD

Scroll down to April 8.

Vet66 said...

I couldn't trim the "widow makers" off our douglas fir trees that had the habit of harpooning our wooden decks/roof with 10 foot limbs because of the Spotted Owl. These people are torching the trees and underbrush for photo ops for bird watchers in a marsh? So much for natural selection. Marshes, by their very nature, are future land for other flora and fauna. I thought trees were protected for their photosynthesis capabilities.

ken in tx said...

Southeastern Indian tribes burned off the underbrush on their hunting grounds about once every five years. It favored the deer and other prey they hunted. Many so-called woods arson fires are started by people who continue this practice.

Rusty said...

AllenS said...
It's called a controlled burn. It's done every year around here to control unwanted trees and weeds from taking control on land that the DNR wants to look like what they think the original prairie ground looked like. They probably seeded the land down some years ago with prairie grasses.

Prior to europeans either the native americans or natural causes burned large areas of the plains every year. It's how we got nice black topsoil dozens of feet thick.