Holy Peat Fires, Batman…

I keep sending wishes for rain from here in Asheville up the mountains and into the Dismal Swamp up in Virginia and North Carolina, where peat fires have been raging since the beginning of the month.  Peat fires are natural to the area. Most are started when lightning strikes and sets aflame the layers of turf and the old, dead trees – basically natural charcoal. The peat fire does not just burn the surface of the earth, but due to the swamps and the rich strains of peat, it also runs underground. A lick of flame under the peat can be virtually undetectable until it flares forth in a gout of flame after it runs into clumps of dried grass or methane pockets from decayed animals!

I love my new home in the mountains, but that there burning swamp still owns a portion of my heart and soul.  Knowing that the fires are chasing out the wildlife that makes that green spot on the map a home makes me tremble. Bears and deer will soon be filling the roads and farmers’ fields and falling to cars and guns.  The human civilization footprint is huge…there are so few sanctuaries left and the swamp ecosystem is already compromised.  And now she’s burning.

I keep looking at the rain falling outside of my window and being so thankful and yet so sad.  There is a terrible famine in Africa, worldwide temperature fluctuations are making the wet places burn, and the shifts are so rapid…it’s terrifying.

This too must pass.

Breathe.