Topic: Who wants to see a field on fire?

[idolminds]

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The conservation district was doing a prescribed burn of this particular field. Normally they are done during the day, but they did a special one at night so people could watch. Most of the pics didnt turn out since it was dark and I had no tripod, but some did end up ok. I took a couple vids and spliced them all together. It gives a better idea of how large the field and fire was.

So...yeah, enjoy.

[Cobra951]

Wow.  What's that for, burning away dry stuff to prevent natural fires?  Great pictures.

[idolminds]

Yes, partly that. But also native prairie plants are actually kind of expecting the occasional fire. They can withstand it, where non-native plants cant. So it really helps them restore the natural state. They showed pictures of how quickly the native plants pop back after a fire. They did a burn, everything was blackened. Another picture of the same place a week later and it was green as can be. All the new growth attracts the herbivores, and the herbivores attract the carnivores. Its just a good thing all around.

See: Controlled Burn and the impact the 1988 fire had at Yellowstone.

[Xessive]

Nice! I can be a bit of a pyro

I remember in Lebanon we used to do a similar procedure but on a much smaller scale since our field was only a few acres.

[Antares]

Yes, partly that. But also native prairie plants are actually kind of expecting the occasional fire. They can withstand it, where non-native plants cant. So it really helps them restore the natural state. They showed pictures of how quickly the native plants pop back after a fire. They did a burn, everything was blackened. Another picture of the same place a week later and it was green as can be. All the new growth attracts the herbivores, and the herbivores attract the carnivores. Its just a good thing all around.

See: Controlled Burn and the impact the 1988 fire had at Yellowstone.

It is amazing how quickly life rebounds after a fire.  A major problem back in my homestate of Colorado was that so many years of aggressively preventing forest fires has left much of the forest overgrown and choked with dead wood, now when a fire comes through it burns much faster and hotter than a natural fire would and kills off all the natural plantlife as well.

[Ghandi]

A big problem with preventing forest fires (I forget in which state) was that some of the larger trees that had seeds that only germinated through fires didn't naturally grow anymore because of the fact that forest fires were being prevented. The pods opened during a fire and released the seeds inside. I forget the species of tree, I'm going to look it up. But the fact is, fires are a natural process. They aren't all bad.

[Quemaqua]

Awesome, I finally got to check these out.  Julia and I sat down and looked/watched.  Very cool.  Julia said she'd last about 10 seconds being anywhere near that much smoke, but I totally wish I could have seen it firsthand.  Quite a sight.  Your video was great, too... I didn't realize just how big it actually was until you got it moving and could pan around to see the whole thing at once.