JOPLIN, Mo. — About 1:00 p.m. Wednesday huge plumes of smoke from Campbell Parkway floated above Joplin. 

The Missouri Prairie Foundation performed a controlled burn of grassland between 15th and 20th along Murphy Blvd. 

“For 55 years, the Missouri Prairie Foundation has been conserving Missouri’s prairies and other native grasslands—some of the most imperiled habitats on the planet.”

MISSOURI PRAIRIE FOUNDATION

While we were on the scene and the fire spread across the grassland we saw rabbits hopping away from the smoke and fire. Many ask what happens to animals?

Recently Missouri Dept of Conservation told us at a controlled burn, animals have a chance to burrow into their holes or run out of the burn zone. Reptiles like turtles and snakes are burrowed below the ground, hibernating enough to be safe. Controlled burns are a part of germinating new growth and clearing out dead undergrowth that could start out-of-control wildfires.

NOTICE HOW THEY SET THE CONTROLLED BURN WHERE IT DOES NOT CONSUME THE TREES (BETWEEN RED LINES). THERE IS A LANE OF GRASS NOT BURNED ALONG THIS PATH OF TREES. THE TECHNIQUE WAS REPEATED ACROSS THE LAND AREA. NO TREES BURNED.

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