vagrant

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In the grasslands of western Madagascar the landscape is burned over periodically, sometimes from an errant cigarette tossed out of a taxi bruisse but often the fires are set intentionaly.  During the winter months (dry season) there is no forage for cattle and ranchers set fires so that new grass will grow in their wake.  Villagers also burn the land around their homes so that if an out of control fire sweeps through they will be in less danger of losing their grass houses.  Of course, even the intentional fires are often out of control and with the addition of high winds they can burn hundreds of acres.  From our camp we could watch portions of the landscape ablaze every night down on the plain below us.  Reforestation in many areas is nearly impossible with the fires sweeping through at least once a season; they kill most of the young trees fairly quickly unless they’re near a home and protected.

I’ve been decompressing after returning from Madagascar a couple of weeks ago.  It was an amazing place and I think I need some more time to adequately gather my thoughts before I can articulate much about the work we were doing there.  In the meantime I have plenty of video footage which I finished logging and I’ll be posting shorts as I figure out how to build something longer…