WEBVTT

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It's not only a training ground but

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from your lens . What is it ? Well ,

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we're accomplishing several different

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things here . Today , we're going to

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the burn is going to help maintain this

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area as a prairie for a couple of

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reasons so that it is an extension of

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the badger drop zone . So it allows

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more drop time for the soldiers when

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they're either dropping equipment or

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parachute . But on the natural

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resources side of the house , we've got

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several rare butterflies on the

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installation . So they're already found

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out in that badger drop zone . So

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they're trying to um expand their

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habitat . One of them is the regal

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frill butterfly and another one is the

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auto skipper butterfly . Uh both very

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rare , the auto skipper , we're the

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only place left in Wisconsin that that

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butter be found . So and again , more

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than likely someday that species will

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be federally listed . It's not being

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considered right now , but it probably

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will be in the near future , the regal

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frill area . We've got the largest

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population of that butterfly left in

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the upper Midwest and that species is

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on , it's being considered for federal

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listing right now . So more than likely

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my , a decision will be made within the

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next couple of years , whether that

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species is going to be listed or not .

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So , we should be , we'll be improving

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that habitat for those two species

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today . How much exactly are we burning

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here ? This is 28 acre area today that

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we're burning . Is this like a normal

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size for burnings or ? Well , we don't

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have huge fires on mccoy . So I would

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say , I mean , we have some that will

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be in that 100 acre area . The largest

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fire we do is when we burn out the

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impact area . But most of our

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ecological burns are in this 5075 acre

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size normally . So , not real large .

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Any other questions ? Tell us about the

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purpose of and , and how often , I mean ,

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how many describes have you seen over

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the years ? Well , I've worked on mccoy

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for 38 years and I used to be part of

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the coup during the burning too . So ,

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uh hundreds , if not 1000 burn , I mean ,

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we'll do you know where there's a short

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burn window on the spring , but we'll

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normally burn 15 to 20 units at least

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in a year . We've got a burn rotation .

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Uh Normally it's every 7 to 10 years .

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In some of the areas , we try to get

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back to uh burn them . There's other

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benefits to burn too . Some of it has

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to do with invasive species management .

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So we'll burn particular areas to help

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control invasive species too . Um , so

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there's a variety of reasons that we do

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burn . What's it like to be there right

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now ? Because you said you had lots of

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experience . Right . Well , today we

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got pretty cool weather . There's days

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when it , you know , you can have warm ,

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hot weather and it's , it gets to be a

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hard job . You've got to have plenty of

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water with you . This 28 acre burn is

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not going to take very long to burn .

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So it shouldn't be too hard for the

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folks . But again , you're always on

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your toes , making sure , you know ,

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they're going to have a holding crew ,

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which means once they get the area

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blacked out , they're going to have

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people watching to make sure there's

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not a jump in the line that's their job

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to do that as the other people go and

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continue lighting , you know , lighting

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the fire . Um So there's a lot of

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responsibility in that too . How the

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train go and all of these folks ,

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army right now is trying to get up to

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what's called uh NWCG standards , uh

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National Wildfire Corps Standards and

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is not the only installation they

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trying to get all the army

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installations are trying to get to

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those qualifications , but there's

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numerous types of trainings you have to

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take . There's different levels could

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be a firefighter , one or a firefighter

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Hampton for all . Awesome . There's ,

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and you got

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sort of certification . So we'll

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actually send people . We had uh one of

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our employees go to Florida last spring

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for training for her . I think it was

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two weeks time . He was down there for

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training and we're gonna , I think he's

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going back this year to keep getting

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more qualifications . So just trying to

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constantly improve and these

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butterflies apparently are not here

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right now . No . Uh the auto skipper

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butterfly over winners as a larva . Um

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That one again , it's , we know it's

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found out that direction . We've never

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found it right in here where we're

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burning . We're just hoping um the

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regal frill area , it its host plant is

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violet , like a bird's foot , violet .

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So this burning will help increase the

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amount of violets on the landscape and

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everything too . And an individual burn

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may , you may have mortality for the

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butterflies that are found within that

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burn , but we're burning such small

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areas on a rotational basis that you

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know , if , if there weren't

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butterflies in there , they get killed

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or larva or whatever , they'll get

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repopulated from all the areas around

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us . That's the one advantage of mccoy .

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We have a lot of habitat on the ground .

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And so when we burn in that rotational

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area , we can prove improve the habitat

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without uh negatively impacting the

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population of Tim . I'm frankly kind of

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surprised just um personally to hear

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that , I think um doing prescribed

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birds for the training purposes , I

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think that environmental endangered

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species , I didn't expect that .

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That's the job . Yeah ,

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we have the army isn't normally gonna

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get the land to train us . So you gotta

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take care of what you've got here . And

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one of those things is we got to live

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by the Species Act and you know , just

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like so a lot of time

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species that try to minimize their

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impact , that

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population under ownership of it

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and it's running lost treatment because

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of that butterfly . We've got that

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butterfly all over the landscape to the

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trainers . That that's a good thing

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really about protecting my

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that butterfly scattered all over . So

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there's restrictions .