The way-back machine… (prescribed fire)

By Daniel Barringer, Preserve Manager.

You could say that prescribed fire resets the plant community into a slightly earlier state, burning off built-up organic matter and returning the site to the earlier conditions that better supported rare species or an uncommon plant community.

Or you could just look at this photo—one of my earliest digital photos taken in November, 2000—and say, in 19 years these guys haven’t aged much at all! From left to right with faces visible, that’s Burn Boss Darin Groff, Gary Gimbert, Tim Burris, and Jack Stefferud. We’re keeping that pickup from floating away—and getting ready for a briefing ahead of a fall burn at Stroud Preserve’s Serpentine Barrens.