lowest branches.
Jack pines repopulate when their cones are heated from fire and seeds
are released. In an effort to rejuvenate the Kirtland’s warbler population, the U.S.
Forest Service will conduct controlled burns to rid the area of old jack pines and
release the seeds to grow new ones.
In other words, we burn trees so others can grow. We destroy jack pines so
birds can live. South American farmers burn the rain forest to clear land for their
crops. In sub-Saharan Africa, fields are even burned as a mechanism to herd prey.
I burn leftover scraps from my woodshed to make room for new projects.
We burn chopped wood in metal pits to stay warm while camping and to have
something to stare into while we share stories and drink beer. We burn to live, we
burn for a songbird to survive, we burn when we think we can control it, but we
use a cartoon bear to teach children to be afraid of it.
When I was four, my family moved from an apartment in Saginaw to a
trailer park in Belleville. A neighbor girl who would soon become my best friend
hovered at the edge of the neighbor’s driveway. I waved from the front door, but
she wouldn’t come closer. She was too scared to come closer because the last
home that sat on our lot had burned to the ground.
Six years later, my parents were divorced, and my mother lived in a
second-floor apartment of a house in Dearborn. My brother and the boy who
lived in the first-floor apartment had gotten their hands on fireworks and were
lighting them in the large, unkempt backyard, laughing maniacally as each
one exploded into the air. Even though my brother was younger than me, the
neighbor boy was older, so I sat on the back porch and watched them, eager he
would notice me. He said nothing, but I thought I saw him glance my way a few
times, and that was enough to keep me from going back inside.
He held what looked like a foam replica of a Wright Brothers airplane
away from him with one hand and lit the wick with the other. The wings fluttered
as the wick burned down, and he tossed it into the air. It flew upward and then
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