By Ron Sylvester
The Wichita Eagle (Kan.)
WICHITA, Kan. — A few people followed the smoke billowing over west Wichita on Monday afternoon.
“Was there an accident?” one passer-by asked about the smoke so close to the airport.
No. It was a controlled burn by the city’s park and fire departments to revitalize 50 acres of prairie surrounding the biking, hiking and horse trails at Pawnee Prairie Park on South Tyler, at the city’s edge.
“We’ve been angling for a south wind, and it looks like we’re finally getting it,” said Jim Mason, a naturalist with the Great Plains Nature Center, who was overseeing the burn.
Mason looked to the east, as airplanes took off from Mid-Continent Airport, while a line of fire crept toward a thicket of small trees. He was afraid the smoke might interfere with visibility.
Burning season
It’s the season for controlled burns across Kansas. The Flint Hills have glowed with an early spring blaze lighting up the horizon on recent nights, from ranchers caring for their grasslands.
The fires are a healing ritual, keeping what’s left of the Great Plains prairies from growing over with shrubs, trees and shade that might crowd out the sun-loving grasses and wildflowers that characterize Kansas.
It’s also a dangerous ritual, when fire and smoke combine with the changing winds across the plains.
“It looks like they picked the best day of the week, because of the light winds,” said Jim Caruso, a meteorologist from the Wichita office of the National Weather Service, which is across from the burn site. “It’s going to be dangerous the rest of the week.”
The weather service has issued an “extreme” fire danger for today, with dry conditions combining with strong winds gusting up to 50 mph, so flames could easily get out of control.
“No one has any business burning anything (today),” Caruso said. “People should even watch their cigarette butts.”
The fire hazard will continue Wednesday, forecasters say.
“It’s a combination of the winds and the dry conditions,” Caruso said. “There’s low humidity and the ground is really dry.”
The Wichita Fire Department was at Pawnee Prairie as trained park workers controlled the setting of the fire.
“You want to start on the outside and work around the perimeter,” said David Stange, who with Jeff Brewster, carried tanks with fuel, igniting the grass behind them. “You want to burn a little bit on the outside, before you light the main, head fire,” said Stange.
The fire only burned on a fraction of the 640 acres, including a golf course, where play continued as pillars of smoke rose to the south.
After the burn and a rainy season, the wildflowers and grasses indigenous to Kansas should flourish along the park’s paths.
“The prairies of North America have developed because of drought, grazing and fire,” Mason said. “We can’t control the weather, and in urban areas can’t do much about grazing. But the fire is a part that we can control.”
Copyright 2008 The Wichita Eagle