Monthly Archives: April 2011

Fires along the Arkansas River are not surprising this time of year. However, fire anywhere, with early spring winds can be devastating and frightening. With residences and businesses so close to the river, fire burning through the underbrush often sends sparks and flames dangerously close to civilization. As much as we’d all like to believe that nature can exist without the purification of fire, there could be nothing further from the truth. Burning out the river bottom has been known to prevent flooding, keep down incidences of overgrowth in the river and overly abundant wildlife is often thinned out by the “other” nature – fire. If you’ve never seen the magnificent green growth appearing mere days after a fire, you’ve missed a magical setting. With the ground blackened by a burn, green peeps through the ash, like a phoenix daring the new growth to change the life that existed before, fire renews the earth. Although businesses reside near the river, the distance between business and river is covered by green growing fields, a railroad and in many cases a county road or two. In this case, the distance beyond the building is just over a mile to the river, although read more…