Smoke from an out-of-control prescribed burn at Wind Cave hung in the air when Joel Schwader visited Custer State Park last week. “It was so smoky when I first got there,” Schwader says. “You could barely drive in it. I found it amazing how the animals seemed to adjust so well to it.”
Rain helped firefighters contain much of the blaze by April 16. Wind is to blame for pushing the fire outside of planned boundaries. Much of South Dakota remains under high to extreme grassland fire danger due to gusty winds and low moisture. The conditions have prompted several counties to issue burn bans this spring.
