Many people have experienced driving through the Flint Hills
and witnessing springtime prairie fires from the highway. On Monday, March 10th
a similar controlled burn took place on the Kanza Education and Science
Park site.
The burn was conducted by the Westar Green Team with the Topeka Fire
department assisting as part of an educational and training activity. Students
of Topeka Public Schools and surrounding districts will have an opportunity to
contribute to the restoration of the Kanza grassland and get hands-on
experience and education in grassland ecology.
Brad Loveless, Executive Director of Environmental Services
at Westar, explained the many factors that contribute to a successful burn.
With I-70 to the north, nearby neighbors to the south and a hospital to the
southeast of the grassland, the direction of the wind is very important.
According to Loveless, the “consistent and dependable wind out of the west (made
it) a perfect day” to conduct the burn.
Loveless also explained how a controlled burn works. “When you
do a controlled burn you have what’s called a backfire, which is on the
downwind side. You basically use up all the fuel down there so that when the
fire is carried by the wind it ends up stopping where it runs out of fuel.
Those two components are critical.”
The goal of the burn was to rid the area of cool season
grass and replace it with native grass and prairie flowers. High schoolers from
Hope Street Academy, led by teacher Miranda Forgey, have been conducting studies
in class for the last three years. They take samples from soil, plants and
animals to observe and compare. Hope Street’s horticulture class will plant
seeds indoors and transplant them, monitoring the seedlings’ growth along the
way.
The controlled burn was made possible through the
cooperation of several agencies including Westar Green Team, Topeka Fire
Department, Topeka Public Schools, Kansas Dept. of Transportation and Kansas
Highway Patrol.
