Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Paying to Burn the Prairie

LEDE:
The rising price of corn and other grains has put the squeeze on cattle ranchers in the midwest, who use grain to feed their livestock. So some are looking for other ways to earn their living off the land. Sylvia Maria Gross [of station KCUR] recently visited a ranch near Emporia, Kansas where one man has come up with a pretty good scheme.

STORY:
TRACK: For most of his career, Jan Jantzen was a college administrator.

ACT: JAN: But don’t hold that against me. I’ve always been an outdoors kid at heart and gave things name – trees and weeds and bushes, even when I didn’t know what they were.

TRACK: Jan grew up in a small town in Western Kansas. And when he retired from academia, he bought a cattle ranch in the nearby Flint Hills. It’s a region with the largest swath of original tallgrass prairie in the country. For thousands of years, animals have grazed on its natural grasses and wildflowers. And every few years, a lightening strike would burn the pastures down to ashes. It’s an ecosystem that Native Americans and then modern ranchers like Jan have learned to help along with cattle and fire.

ACT: JAN: If we didn’t burn and graze this area it would become primarily a scrub forest, mainly with eastern red cedars that wouldn’t have much value for anything.

TRACK: Jan says every April – ranchers start itching to burn their pastures. Earth – wind – fire – those basic elements seem to attract people.

AMB: Here’s where you check in folks . . . right here . . . we have to check in – OK – Bertrand – il faut check-in la . . .

TRACK: When it was time to burn, Jan used to just call over some friends, get some six-packs and make a little party it. But then friends would invite more friends. People from out of town would hear about it, and start scheduling vacations around Jan’s prairie burn. Some even started offering to pay.

AMB: [sound of wagon coming in ???]

TRACK: So Jan created this event called “Flames in the Flint Hills,” where guests pay 120 dollars each to help him burn his prairie.

AMB: [“ok – we’re here” – more AMB]

TRACK Anne de Montille brought her husband and four children. They’re from Paris originally. They live in Kansas City now.

ACT: ANNE: We talk to our friends, American friends in Kansas City, and they say why are you going to do, you are going to what – burning what – but nobody does that – I say but OK, we are going to do it.

TRACK: There are 50 paying guests today. Since Jan started these burns five years ago, he’s had visitors from as far as Germany and Finland. But most are from around Kansas and Kansas City. Jan’s old friends are working the event as volunteers. Plus, there’s a bluegrass band, and a caterer who serves local cheese curd and peach-glazed buffalo and barley meatballs out of a chuck wagon.

ACT: JAN: Would all the guests please come inside? [run AMB of people gathering in barn]

TRACK: In the barn, Jan steps on a little stage and the guests sit on blocks of hay. He gives them a little history, science, and then some fire safety tips.

ACT: JAN: It’s important to me that everybody that came with hair and eyebrows leaves with the same amount of hair and eyebrows. [LAUGHING]

TRACK: Jan’s rule of thumb is to remember the colors black and blue. If the fire’s heading at you, he says, go to an area that’s black, because it’s already been burned.

ACT: JAN: If you can’t get to some place black and here it comes – go someplace blue, like a pond [laughing . . . ]

TRACK: And with that, we’re ready to set some fires.

ACT: JAN: As you file out grab some matches if you want them, go get your rake, and follow me across the pond band . . .

TRACK: We line up along one edge of the pasture, with our backs to the wind. Jan tells us to pull the tall, dry Indian grass into little clumps for kindling. And, then the big moment . . . .

JAN: Fire lighters are you ready? Light the fire . . . [coughing . . . sound of match . . . and let me out of here . . . ]

TRACK: It’s windy, and the grass takes a few seconds to catch.

AMB: JAN: drag to your left!

TRACK: But when it does, the fire-lighters use their rakes to drag it along the ground until it wooshes up into huge flames . . .

AMB: [LOUD CRACKLES AND LAUGHING]

TRACK: In a minute or two, it’s a true inferno . . . licking the sky - 20 feet up - hotter and brighter than I expected. Now some people here are old hands at this. Brian Keith is a local rancher [– he’s helping Jan out as a volunteer,] and admits some locals think this is a little weird.

ACT: BRIAN: The older generation, really do think its awkward or odd that somebody would come pay for a experience like this but I think it’s you know a great opportunity for them and it’s also an opportunity for Jan to create a little income and educate the public at the same time.

TRACK: There are people who criticize these burns. They say the smoke causes air quality problems. But Jan says praire burns are essential to ranching – and he hopes these events will teach people where their food comes from.. And he also wants to show struggling farmers and ranchers other ways to make money off the land.

ACT: JAN: The ranching way of life, the horses, the cattle, the four-wheelers, the tractors, the combines . . . most all of which these days have an extra seat in them.

TRACK: And that extra seat could be worth $100, to have a tourist ride along, see what it’s like to harvest corn or wheat.

AMB: [crackle]

TRACK: It’s almost night, and four year old Zita de Montille is a little frustrated because her fire is taking a little longer to flame up.

AMB: um . . . it’s not like that one . . . yours is a slow burn – yeah – it’ll get there – and in about 7 days it will all be green – green with flowers and flowers and flowers . . . I fell into a burning ring of fire . . .

TRACK: We’re getting a little giddy surrounded by lines of flame and walking over the charred ground in between. Kristy Wright is standing where the field hits the road – making sure all the fires go out safely.

ACT: KRISTY: I’ve grown up in the Flint Hills, loved the Flint Hills. It’s beautiful when you’re driving and you see just miles and miles and miles of this line of fire going in zigzaggy patterns. At night it’s so beautiful.

As people are leaving, Jan still has work to do. He pulls up to the smoldering field in his four-wheeler, in his hand is a Miller Lite.

ACT: JAN: I’m celebrating [run under next track and up again . . . ]

TRACK: But he’s not done yet . . .

ACT: JAN: [continued] I see the possibility of some fenceposts that might be on fire so I’m going to go down, and put out some fenceposts . . . ME: I’ll let you do that.

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