Burn
The tallgrass prairie is a rare and ancient treasure. For 10,000 years prairies covered the plains from Texas to Canada, Illinois to the Rocky Mountains.
When homesteaders began to settle the land, they discovered fertile land free of trees and ready for the plow. The tallgrass prairie of yesterday is today fields of corn, wheat, alfalfa, soybeans and milo. Less than 4% of the original prairie remains.
A mixture of grasses makes up the tallgrass prairie. Big bluestem is the star, reaching as much as 7' in height. Indian grass and slough grass, too, grow as much as 6' tall on ungrazed land in ideal rain conditions. Shorter, but just as important to the prairie, are side-oats grama, Canada wild rye, June grass, little bluestem, prairie dropseed, switch and porcupine grass. The cool evenings of fall paint the prairie in bronze, gold and rust.
But grasses are only one part of the story. Dozens of wildflower varietals provide seasonal color. Coneflower dress the prairie in yellow; spires of blazing star dress it in purple. Clover, violets, and paintbrush add white, blue and red.
As beautiful as the tallgrass prairie is, it would not exist without fire. Periodic fires cleanse the prairie, keeping it free of trees and brush, exposing sun-warmed soil and encouraging young grasses to grow. In ancient times, lightning strikes sparked fires that raced across the land. When man settled the plains, he began fires himself, knowing that bison and deer would be drawn to the tender new grass.
The Flint Hills of Kansas shelters much of what remains of the tallgrass prairie. From April 1 to May 1, the sky is hazy with smoke, and the air smells sweet and hot, as ranchers practice the ritual of controlled burns.
Modern range management is an art and a science. Ranchers must wait until spring when the sap has risen in trees and shrubs in order to get a good kill. But every day they wait is a day they must feed their cattle with mown hay, costing the rancher money.
The winds must be sufficient to carry the fire across the prairie, but calm enough that it will stay manageable. And it must blow in a direction that will not carry the smoke across highways and major roads.
The land must be prepared by mowing breaks and backburning. And it takes many hands to spread the fire but keep it under control.
Fire makes its own wind. It is noisy and unpredictable, and can race across acres within minutes. When it hits a thick patch of grass, the fire explodes, flames leaping high in the air.
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©2005 Sally M. Snell & Michael Snell, all rights reserved
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