Crime Pays but Botany Doesn't - How Prairie Fires Restore Water to Soil & Why Prairies Need to Burn

In this hour-long interview, Gerry Wilhelm, one of the 2 authors of the massive tome Flora of the Chicago Region, gives us insight into how fire is essential to prairie ecosystems - and many ecosystems around the globe. Gerry sets his suburban Chicago backyard on fire every fall after first frost, and when I asked him why he does it, his answer surprised me. This conversation ended up getting a lot more philosophical then I anticipated, and the wisdom Gerry shares with us is valuable. We would be wise to listen to it, so that we know how to manage the land that we live on, as well as reduce the effects of heat and flooding. The native plants can show us the way.