Field Restoration

I visited the Doak Field in Raccoon Creek State Park today, one day after a controlled burn, and wrote this in my journal:

A real nature journaling day -- warm enough not to wear gloves and the sun is coming out after the morning's rain.

Yesterday, I brought my journal out to this very field, but never wrote or sketched in it -- I intended to record the controlled burning of the field in sketches & words, but at a fire, every hand is put to work -- And I took up the fire rake.

Today, the fire crew has left the field to the bluebirds & me -- the smell of charcoal lies heavy on the wind and the field's blue-black stubble attracts robins & bluebirds to investigate. Are they finding barbecued woolly bear caterpillars or scorched ground beetles? Or are they just curious like me?

I do know that the male bluebird's wings look impossibly blue against the velvet stubble, like a chunk of flying ultramarine sky. Spring. And we are alive again -- the earth & I.

A new heat rises up from the charred grass stubble -- Gentle rain quenched the first fire -- now the sun's heat -- gathered, trapped & radiated by the black char -- causes scintillation in the air above the black earth. The heat of new creation -- will bring a rush of green life.

I hear --

• Phoebes in the woods
• Field sparrows in the open field
• Robins in the few trees of the field
• A flicker way off in the unburned field behind me.

Scenes from the controlled burn the day before:

The flames taking off at the start of the burn.  I'm the one in the bright orange sweatshirt.

Pat Adams, Environmental Educator, Raccoon Creek State Park.