TPW TV: Prescription to Burn
This is Passport to Texas
In nature, fire is an agent for change. The Texas parks and Wildlife PBS TV series looks at this hot topic in January. Producer, Alan Fisher.
In January there are several stories pertaining to fire—both the good and bad about fire. This week there’s a story called Prescription to Burn, which is about the benefits of prescribed fire for habitat.
Most of these ecosystems did evolve with fire; the plants are adapted to fire—in the absence of fire, the ecosystem gets out of balance.
At the end of the month is a story called Fire on the Prairie, which is about the devastating fires in the Panhandle in the spring of 2006. The wind and drought burned almost a half million acres in the Panhandle.
It went from a beautiful pristine open prairie to what looks like a wasteland.
It was really devastating in terms of loss of life and property. But from a habitat standpoint, not as tragic as it could be. Fire can be very beneficial if rains especially come at the right times, and in fact, the story shows how the landscape is recovering.
We can’t go and really fix anything right now. We just have to let nature takes its course and hope that everything will come back the way it was.
You can find a list of stations that broadcast the series on the Texas parks and Wildlife website.
That’s our show for today… For Texas Parks and Wildlife, I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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