A Controlled Burn

I had brilliant blogging ideas this morning as I walked to my office, but I became distracted by a controlled burn occurring in the middle of campus.  Now, it would be one thing if this was burning off some prairie grassland in fields adjacent to campus or even behind a biology building, but this was in the middle of campus.

Apparently prairie gardens should be burned back every two years. It was very dry this spring and there was a burning ban in place, but the last few weeks have been pretty wet. So, this fire required some encouragement.  There was something incredibly matter-of-fact about the entire operation. Growing up in the suburbs and attending a large urban school like Ohio State, I could not imagine something like this taking place without two-thirds of the local fire department on stand-by, policy lines set up to discourage people from playing in it, and several serious looking men in Nomex fire-suits.

Here at the University of North Dakota, there was just one guy with a “can-o-fire” and some serious looking work gloves. It was all very peaceful and ordinary.