By Greg Doering, Kansas Farm Bureau
The changing of clocks always makes me grumpy, especially in the spring when it means losing an hour of the weekend. I understand the rationale behind the whole charade, but understanding doesnāt do anything to alleviate my mood after springing forward. It usually takes at least a couple of weeks to adjust.
Just to be abundantly clear, the practice of shifting clocks forward and backward has nothing to do with creating or eliminating daylight, rather it merely shifts how humans experience it. Nature doesnāt recognize the time we keep, but Iām sure there were some pets happy to receive breakfast an hour early Sunday morning.
What does enhance my mood is the prospect of warmer weather. With just a few days until spring, thereās plenty of promise in sunshine-filled days and temperatures that allow you to leave a jacket at home.
With the warmer weather another sign of spring will soon rise from the horizon as ranchers in the Flint Hills begin the annual process of intentionally setting fire to their pastures sending smoke plumes into the sky.
The fires remove the tans and browns of dead grasses leaving behind a blanket of black earth. The destruction is necessary because it not only removes the overgrowth of grass, but it also kills invasive plants that encroach on the prairie ecosystem.
Within days of the fire, tender green shoots emerge from the ashes and over the course of two weeks, the Flint Hills are covered with the verdant velvet of new prairie. Thereās nothing better than driving a backroad through the Flint Hills this time of year and taking in the refreshed landscape.
For the prairie, fire hastens the arrival of spring allowing the sunshine to reach the soil faster and encourage new growth earlier. Itās all too welcome this year after a brutal winter featuring multiple blizzards and serious cold.
Like those bouts of snow and cold, fire season is short, and only a few days over the next several weeks will offer ideal conditions where the humidity, temperature and wind are just right for a productive burn. There are precious few perfect days in Kansas, but in early spring when itās not too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry or too windy are ideal for burning.
Not every rancher burns their pastures every year. Deciding when and where to burn is contingent on a number of factors important to individual landowners. Often neighbors plan and burn together, giving them more hands to ensure a safe, controlled burn.
Theyāll also attempt to time burns to lessen the impact of smoke on the rest of us. Thatās not to say youāll never smell the distinctive smoke from a controlled burn, but the idea is to conduct the burns when the smoke is most likely to rise high into the atmosphere and be mixed by the winds.
Itās visible from miles away, and itās one of my favorite sights every year because I know what comes after the smoke.
“Insight” is a weekly column published by Kansas Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization whose mission is to strengthen agriculture and the lives of Kansans through advocacy, education and service.
