Not a great day for "so-called" controlled burn

July 17, 2007, photo of butterfly on buttonbush on World Peace Wetland Prairie.

Buttonbush in bloom on World Peace Wetland Prairie in 2007

PLEASE CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE.
Buttonbush button past prime bloom on World Peace Wetland Prairie in 2007

Button bush root uncovered in process of digging out fescue shows how roots of many native prairie plants survive mowing and burning and regenerate new stems in all directions but succeed best in the wettest areas. These natives may be found on the edge of ditches created by dredging slow-moving lowland streams, still trying to survive and succeeding where allowed to flourish.

The wind has been too strong this morning for outdoor burning of any kind.


Prairie fire planned at Westside treatment plant"

Although burning prairies and even woodland for management purposes is a commonly used tool of land managers, the people advocating the process seldom address the risks.
It is as though the ideal of bringing back a native-plant community on the land is considered by these specialists as more of a worldwide emergency than reducing the carbon load in our atmosphere.
Encouraging native species is one of my own goals. However, the process can be done without releasing more carbon dioxide.
The right tool is the hand tool. The right fuel for prairie "restoration" is the food the people who do the labor consume.

Interesting that our city's new goal of becoming a major "sustainability center" would allow for a quick-fix approach to prairie restoration.

The city, however, should be encouraging everyone to plant native species in the city. Landscaping required in new developments should be all-native with selections made to fit soil type and location and a natural look. Invasive non-native species should be forbidden.

Our wonderful botanical garden is an area where specimen plants of all sorts are available for educational purposes. But many require careful tending to survive in our area and many must be controlled to avoid spreading them.

Sustainablity is much easier to achieve where native species are prevalent. They survive the droughts and flourish when there is rain. But using machinery and fire to remove the non-native invasives such as fescue runs counter to the goals of protecting our air and water and soil. And existing native fauna can't all fly away as the birds do. Box turtles and beneficial native insects and countless other living things dependant on a specific area don't just run away and find equivalent habitat. Land of every sort has its identifiable carrying capacity for various species.

Because the land supposedly was primarily pasture land, fire may harm fewer species than had it already have been well started toward natural regeneration of native plants. However, the increase in the number of rare native plants already identified after a relatively short period of regeneration on the former pasture suggests that gentler methods could work effectively at this point.

Some of the native plants in a wetland prairie do not pop up instantly after a fire and bloom the first season. For instance, the magnificent buttonbush takes a couple of years to grow back to a size that will allow it to bloom. It takes even longer for buttonbushes to develop strong stems and finally the kind of substantial trunks seen in isolated or "unmanaged" southern swamps.

Overall, the development of the prairie at the wastewater-cleansing plant is admirable. It is truly unfortunate that treatment plants are necessary. Land such as that where the treatment plant was built in its natural state encouraged water to soak in where it fell, and the soaking into the organic soil the water was cleansed. The hope is that this site will be an educational tool that can lead developers to understand that covering such areas with red dirt and pavement and over-building can only contribute to further degradation of what makes people want to live in Northwest Arkansas.