(Left) Gery Deaver doing trail-bridge maintenance. (Middle) Jerry & Suzanne Brown, Harold Wittmayer, and David Voigts building Bluebird houses. We would like to thank Terry Lindley for the use of his garage!

(Right) Two volunteers clearing a tree for an upcoming prairie burn.

(Left) Two high school students and one McFarlane employee doing a tree planting project (Right) A group of scouts that helped us clear brush for an upcoming prairie burn.

(Left) A group of volunteers wait very patiently for them to start the fire. (Right) A volunteer can't believe it took them this long to get the fire going!

A prairie burn is a sight to see, the flames can get up to 20 feet high. (Right) This is what we are left with after the burn is complete. But given a short time the prairie grass will grow tall again and you'll see many native flowers in bloom. Fires were not uncommon in Iowa before it was settled. Often a lightning strike would cause a prairie fire and by using this process of continually eliminating certain plants, mother nature was able to maintain the prairie all on her own. To maintain an artificial prairie it is necessary to burn it from time to time to eliminate plants that don't belong there.

(Left) Armed and dangerous! Our Volunteer coordinator wields a water-pack used to control the fires (Right) An army of volunteers, it takes a lot of people to do a prairie burn because you have to make sure the fire stays under control and keep it within the designated areas.