Prairie Burns

(emergency siren)

(Flames of a fire coming out of a single-story white house.)

[Abby Brown] We all know about fire safety, the importance of smoke alarms, and even how brave firefighters are.

(Abby, host of FIND Iowa, is standing in a field. She has shoulder length blonde hair and is wearing a dark blue polo shirt and a pair of dark pants.)

[Abby] We definitely don't want fires starting in our homes or schools. But there's one place where fire is welcome, in a prairie.

(Abby holds her hands out, palms up and looks side to side.)

(music)

(A fly over shot of fire burning on a hillside.

Bright, orange flames burning away dry, brown prairie grass.

Scorched sections of brown prairie grass with pockets of flames and dense smoke.)

[Abby] Iowa's beautiful prairies need fire. It's almost as important to them as sunlight. Why? Well some trees and plants growing in a prairie are not supposed to be there. 

(music)

(Fire burning up a hillside.)

They can harm the prairie ecosystem by choking out native prairie plants. 

(music)

(Pockets of fire burning brown prairie grass while sections of scorched Earth smolders and smokes.)

[Abby] It just so happens that these invasive species can't survive fire. But the deep roots of a prairie plant can! So, even though the surface prairie plant burns,   it's deep roots keep it coming back up to grow in the sunlight once again.

(music)

(Yellowish-green prairie grass blowing in the wind as a man walks the prairie.

Stalks of light green prairie grass like rope bending and weaving in the wind.)

[Abby] This is my brother David. He's a naturalist and he knows lots about prairies and also about burning prairies. So, why do we burn a prairie?

[David Erdman, Naturalist] Burning a prairie helps keep the plants we want and destroy  the plants that we don't want.

(David is wearing a gray t-shirt with jeans and is standing behind a picnic table. There are tools on the table.)

[Abby] So we burn the prairie, but don't the prairie plants that we love also get burned?

[David] They do. But it's only on the surface. They have long, strong root structures that lets them come back. It also destroys the bad plants that we don't want because they don't have those big roots.

[Abby] What time of year do we burn?

[David] Spring.

[Abby] Why?

[David] Because the bad plants come up first and the good native plants come up, come up second.

[Abby] Okay.

[David] We want to destroy them first.

[Abby] So fire can be dangerous. But you have lots of ways to keep yourself safe and to control the fire. So tell me about the tools that you have.

[David] Yeah, we have a bunch of different tools here today. And each one of these tools is something different because you need to take away one thing to get rid of fire. So you can either take away the heat, the oxygen, or the fuel.

[Abby] Okay. So what are some of the tools that take those things away?

[David] Well, we can start with the flapper here on the end.

(Abby picks up the flapper. It is a long-handled tool. It has a flat square, rubber piece at the end of the handle that bends flat against the soil as she "slaps" it down on the ground and drags is towards herself.)

[Abby] Oooo, can I guess?

[David] Go ahead and guess.

[Abby] I bet this thing takes away the oxygen.

[David] Exactly. It suffocates the fire. You put it over the fire and it suffocates it.

[Abby] Okay. Let's take a look at this one. What is this tool used for?

(Abby picks up the next tool beside the flapper. It is a long handled tool with a red, metal piece on the end. The red metal piece is rectangular and has pointy triangles cut out of the rectangle like tops of  hand-drawn houses.)

[David] That's called a fire rake. That's used to move the fuel away from the fire, creating a line of dirt which doesn't burn.

[Abby] So you move all the plants and all the things that are flammable and can burn away.

[David] Exactly.

[Abby] Because dirt doesn't burn. So it would stop.

[David] Exactly.

[Abby] Okay. What about this tool.

(Abby picks up a short-handled tool. It has a flat, black metal piece attached to the end one end of the metal piece has a square edge and looks like a handheld gardening hoe. The other side of the metal piece is pointed like a stake you might use to hold down the edge of a tent.)

[David] That does about the same thing. It allows you to dig a trench or a line so that fire can't jump over that line.

(Abby and David turn to the tools on the picnic table.)

[Abby] Okay, so what are these?

[David] This is a leaf blower. And we got a couple of chainsaws here.

[Abby] What do you use a leaf blower for?

[David] A leaf blower is really good for putting out a fire, just like blowing out a candle. It has to be smaller fires. You won't put out a big fire with it. And then the chainsaws are typically for cleanup.

[Abby] Excellent. So we have lots of tools that we use to stop a fire. Tell me about all of the steps involved in preparing for the fire.

(Firefighter in a yellow shirt, tan pants and a yellow helmet holding a fire rake out to the side as he walks up a hillside.

Abby turns to David.)

[David] The first thing we ever do to prepare for fire is we use the big tractor behind us and we install a burn break. 

(David points to the green and yellow tractor with a large orange tiller-like disks attached to the back of the tractor.)

[David] And we'll typically do that way before we ever think about burning. That way, we're all ready to go when we have the correct weather to burn. Because you want the right wind, because you don't want to send the smoke or the fire in the wrong direction.

[Abby] So a burn break is basically a space in the land where there's no fuel. So the fire will stop.

[David] Correct. So a burn break could be something like a gravel road because it will have a hard time jumping that gravel road. Or we'll have to use a tractor to make one. And that involves that disk that's on the back of the tractor, will turn up the soil and hide the fuel and put the dirt on top.

[Abby] Okay. So at that point, are we ready to burn?

[David] Not quite.

[Abby] Okay. What's next?

[David] You need to have the right weather. So you've got to check the weather forecast. If the wind is wrong, or if the wind is right and it might be too dry, might be too dangerous to burn. It might be raining and you're not going to burn in the rain.

[Abby] Okay.

[David] And you need to also have some water sitting around in case you do need to fight a little bit of fire. And you also want to have 911 on standby in case things do go bad.

[Abby] So the fire department is usually notified when you're doing a burn and ready to help out if you need it.

[David] Exactly.

[Abby] Okay. Now, are we ready to burn?

[David] You betcha.

[Abby] Okay. How do we start the fire?

(David holds up a lighter and points to the drip torch on the table. The drip torch looks like a metal canister with a handle and a long rod coming out of the top of the canister.)

[David] So all the fires start with a little lighter, and that lights my drip torch. Now that that's going, now it's dripping fire. And I can walk along and light a fire. And that creates a nice even line so it doesn't burn anything you don't want to burn.

[Abby] So back in the day when the state was covered with prairie, fire would kind of start naturally and go out naturally, right?

[David] Exactly.

[Abby] So why do we have to do it this way, now?

[David] We have too many things we don't want to burn.

[Abby] Okay. That makes sense. And of course, it's so important to keep doing this because.

[David] It helps maintain a healthy prairie.

[Announcer] Funding for Find Iowa has been provided by the following supporters.

(text on the screen) FIND Iowa, The Coons Foundation, Pella, Gilchrist Foundation

(text on the screen) Iowa PBS Education