Last Saturday, a small group of volunteers showed up to conduct a controlled burn in the Peacock Prairie at the James Woodworth Prairie Preserve. In addition to burning a portion of the field, which we do each year in late fall and early spring, we had a large amount of Cornus racemosa GRAY DOGWOOD, which had been cut as part of the overall management plan for the prairie, to burn as well. The pile was from the last two years, so it was rather large. Due to unusual dryness, we knew we were going to burn the Milwaukee swale (has the most grass and usually the most water), so we decided to stack the dry dogwood stems into a pile in the center there as well. The pile ended up being about nine feet tall. It burned quickly, the entire pile reduced to ashes in about 10 minutes. To the right is a photo of that burning pile.