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94 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 5.16 TOOL OF THE TRADE Photo by Chris Witzke Once or (if he's lucky) twice each spring, Matt Spalding gets to play with fre. As a biological technician with the Olmsted Parks Conser- vancy, Spalding prescribes burns. His patients? Native prairie grasses within our parks sys- tem. "Burning is probably the coolest, most ex- otic thing we do," says the 36-year-old, whose job also includes planting, mulching and irrigating trees. At the top of Iroquois Park this spring, Spalding and two crews of four or fve torched Summit Field, where grasses that grow on the knob return year after year. "If you just mow it, the dead stuff lays a thick matting, or hatch, that prevents next year's growth from sprouting and growing easily," he says. "If you burn it periodically, it clears the debris and rids problem plants." Spalding records data like wind speed and relative hu- midity, then he uses a drip torch (pictured) — a spouted, thermos-looking tool that holds a mixture of kerosene and gasoline. "You ignite it, then drip it along a line on the ground," he says. "We use these water bags that are like a backpack Super Soaker to wet a different line where we don't want the fre to go. "You start against the wind, fanking the whole shape of the area. Once it's blackened, it's not going to burn a second time, so then you set the head fre and that's when the wind takes it and we might get 30-foot-tall fames, which is neat." The grassland stays blackened for a couple of weeks, but come summer the perennial wildfowers and grasses "that we want" will fourish. — Katie Molck