 From the Missouri River to the Raccoon River, Western Skies Scenic Byway traverses four of Iowa's landforms and many unique habitat types. If you're looking for waterfowl, upland birds, woodland birds, Western Skies Birding Trail has you covered. Check out the new Birding Trail website to learn where you can go birding in the Western Skies corridor (Audubon, Guthrie, Harrison & Shelby counties) and what species you might find. 
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Earlier this month was the Loess Hills Cooperative Burn Week, an annual event sponsored by the Loess Hills Fire Partners. Burn Week provides partners with an opportunity to achieve fire management where additional skills and resources are needed to accomplish work at a landscape scale. It is also an opportunity to build relationships with partners, share knowledge and skills, and work within a more complex organizational structure than usual, using the Incident Command System. This year's focus was on the southern Loess Hills and based out of Waubonsie State Park in Fremont County. Nearly 90 participants from nearly 40 organizations participated this year. While weather was not ideal for burning most days, several units were burned on Monday and Tuesday. When conditions did not allow for burning, participants did a variety of trainings and educational sessions both indoors and outdoors. Fortunately several of the partners were able to return to Waubonsie later in April to conduct the planned burn at the park. Learn more about fire in Loess Hills prairies here and here. Check out the photos and videos below to see what this year's burns looked like.  Prescribed fire at Riverton Wildlife Management Area during Loess Hills Cooperative Burn Week 2022. Photo by Lance Brisbois.  Prescribed fire at Riverton Wildlife Management Area during Loess Hills Cooperative Burn Week 2022. Photo by Lance Brisbois.  Prescribed fire at Riverton Wildlife Management Area during Loess Hills Cooperative Burn Week 2022. Photo by Lance Brisbois.  Prescribed fire at Riverton Wildlife Management Area during Loess Hills Cooperative Burn Week 2022. Photo by Lance Brisbois.  Prescribed fire at Riverton Wildlife Management Area during Loess Hills Cooperative Burn Week 2022. Photo by Lance Brisbois.  Oak savanna burn at Wheeler Grove Conservation Area in Pottwattamie County. Photo by Derek Christoffel.  Oak savanna burn at Wheeler Grove Conservation Area in Pottwattamie County. Photo by Derek Christoffel.  Oak savanna burn at Wheeler Grove Conservation Area in Pottwattamie County. Photo by Derek Christoffel.  Oak savanna burn at Wheeler Grove Conservation Area in Pottwattamie County. Photo by Derek Christoffel.  Eastern red cedars burning at Mt. Crescent. Photo by Andrea Porter.  Eastern red cedars burning at Mt. Crescent. Photo by Andrea Porter.  Firefighters walking through a recently-burned woodland at Waubonsie. photo by Andrea Porter  Prescribed fire at Waubonsie. photo by Kody Wohlers.  Prescribed fire at Waubonsie. Photo by Shelly Eisenhauer  Prescribed fire at Waubonsie. Photo by Shelly Eisenhauer  Just-burned prairie at Waubonsie. photo by Shelly Eisenhauer  Group photo by Shelly Eisenhauer.  Information center at Washawtee Lodge. Participants learned about logistics and other important details for the week through this area inside Washawtee Lodge. Photo by Kody Wohlers.  Educational presentation at the Lodge.  When conditions were not adequate for burning, participants did other trainings and activities such as cuttnig trees. photo by Shelly Eisenhauer Click here to view the full newsletter and sign up to receive future news. Download the newsletter as a pdf here.    |
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