Scorched earth.

In Governor Nelson State Park today.



ADDED: Some commenters were puzzled by the scorching, but it's routine and unpuzzling to us. Here's an old post from 2009 � "Smoldering landscape. 'Looks like the day after a battle.' 'Did we just stumble into a forest fire?'":

[W]e ran into the forestry worker who was managing the burning � "prescribed fire" � there in Cherokee Marsh, and he explained how he did it and why. Black cherry trees are always threatening to clutter up the space under the big oaks, and red osier dogwood, if left to their own devices, would turn the marsh into a place where the cranes can't walk.

What I wanted people to notice were those humps distributed through the charred field! Those are huge ant hills, and I can verify that the ants did not perish in the fire. They were alive and kicking.