Prairie Burn 2009

Professor Allison gives the mandatory safety presentation in advance of the burn.

Students work the fire area.

Standing in front of a site-specific art work by Tony Gant, associate professor of art (right), students plan with professor Gant how they will document the event.Plans call for the burn to consume the sculpture.

Professor Gant's sculpture was made from branches of black locust trees, a non-native species targeted for eradication from the prairie.

A student takes photos of the fire as it moves through the field containing the sculpture.

The burn takes most of the day. During a lull in the action, students take a picnic break in the prairie.

Weather was cool and damp with light wind, making it (relatively!) easy to limit the fire to this year's designated 20-acre burn area.

A student, taking notes as he contemplates the fire's aftermath, said the fire sounded like rain. He was not the only observer that day to notice the distinctive sounds of a prairie fire.

Smoldering, yes; a wasteland, no. Within a few weeks, the deep-rooted prairie grasses will be visible; by summer the prairie will be several feet tall.
Photography by Hannah Fidoten, Mego Liu and Sara Koehnke.