I spent a big chunk of the day today burning piles of buckthorn and honeysuckle, both invasive species, which volunteers had been cut out of the wooded areas alongside the University Ridge segment of the Ice Age Trail about a year ago.

These areas were so overgrown with buckthorn and honeysuckle that it was impossible to see any of the surrounding hillside from the trail, until these invasive species were cut down and tossed into piles.

The piles were left to dry out for a year. Then, after the first big storm of the year gave us enough snow cover to safely burn them, we tramped out to the woods and lit them up.

Small piles built mostly of small branches and twigs were completely burned up in about an hour. Larger piles, and piles with thicker branches or logs took much longer to completely burn. A couple of the piles were still burning at half-past twelve, when we started spreading the embers out and shoveling snow onto the piles to put them out.