DNR burn

As I was driving along Sugar Bottom Road, I saw smoke in the distance. Intrigued, I determined to find its source.

I estimated it to be a house fire or something of that caliber a mile or two up the road. However, after traveling 5, I realized the smoke was much farther away. Perhaps in North Liberty. So I drove to North Liberty. I got to North Liberty and the smoke was still beyond the horizon. I took Penn Street West out of North Liberty and across I-380. I followed that for several miles until the smoke was to my right. I realized by this point it was not an acute structure fire, but rather the land itself was on fire.

View larger at flickr here.

Where the fire had already been, the land looked like a battle zone from a war movie. Hundred year old trees smoldered on the gray, ashen earth. Smoke rose up from all around as though a bomb had just fallen.
Of course, unlike a battle zone, there were no human fatalities. The burn was for the benefit of the habitat, plants and animals alike. And there were a few sparse survivors: a thistle standing here, or a velvety heat-resistant ground-clinging clod of plant there.