For more information:
• National Park Service Fire Management Program, 3833 S. Development Ave., Boise, ID 83705-5354, (208) 387-5200
• Mammoth Cave National Park, P.O. Box 7, Mammoth Cave, KY 42259, (270) 758-2251

Producer, editor: Cheryl Beckley
Videographers: Cheryl Beckley, David Brinkley, D. Anthony Noel

Feeling the Burn

A prescribed fire at Mammoth Cave National Park

For decades, managers of wild lands saw fire as an enemy and rushed to extinguish all blazes. But ecological research has established that many ecosystems actually depend on periodic fires. They clear out underbrush and thus allow new shoots the room to grow, help some seeds to germinate, prevent woody plants from taking over grassland areas, and otherwise help maintain the delicate natural balance. So these days, naturally occurring wildland fires on National Park Service lands are monitored for their possible impacts but may or not be suppressed. While firefighting crews still get plenty of work—and often risk their lives—battling blazes that threaten lives, property, or particularly rare or scenic habitats, many fires are allowed to burn themselves out.

And sometimes, wildland managers even set fires in areas where a burn is overdue. In this segment, we visit Mammoth Cave National Park to see such a controlled fire at work. Rich Caldwell, the park’s fire management officer, explains the Park Service’s current approach to dealing with fire and outlines its role in encouraging growth and maintaining ecosystems.

For more information:
• Citizen Police Academy, Lexington-Fayette Urban County Division of Police, 150 E. Main St., Lexington, KY 40507, (859) 258-3634

Producer: Chris Stafford

Cops and Community

Citizen Police Academy

Lexington’s Citizen Police Academy is based on the ancient wisdom that to understand a person, you should walk a mile in his shoes—or ride a mile in her cruiser.

The program, open to any adult who lives or works in Fayette County (except those who have already gotten involved with the police in the form of a felony conviction), invites 24 citizens at a time to enroll in a condensed version of police training. Participants attend three one-hour classes a week for 12 weeks, learning about patrol and investigation procedures, accident reconstruction and crime scene processing, defensive tactics and firearms policy, emergency procedures, domestic disputes and juvenile law, and the organization of the police department itself. Through extensive role-playing exercises, the citizen volunteers find themselves having to make some of the split-second decisions police officers face every day in handling everything from traffic accidents to drug investigations to violent crime. Graduates of the CPA can also choose to ride along with a patrol officer for a shift, take a CPR course, and/or get a behind-the-scenes tour of the local jail.

As CPA Liaison Officer Debbie Wagner and Chief Anthony Beatty explain during our visit, this unique opportunity to look in on the complex job of policing society has helped change misconceptions and ease apprehensions about the police. In fact, Lexington’s program has been so successful as a community relations tool that many other police departments in Kentucky and elsewhere have set up their own programs modeled on it.

The Citizen Police Academy is held three times a year, starting in March, June, and September. All the classes are held in the evening, and there is no charge. Prospective enrollees can pick up an application at police headquarters or call to request that one be mailed.

For more information:
• It’s a Jungle Clayworks, (270) 298-9473

Producer, editor: D. Anthony Noel
Videographer: Cassandra Arza

Zebras and Camels and Pigs, Oh My!

It’s a Jungle Clayworks

Bill and Renee Bliznick of Ohio County each retired a few years back—he from the Army, she from a career as an art teacher. Now the two, who met at an art fair in 1999 and married six months later, have a whole new joint career as the proprietors and potters of It’s a Jungle Clayworks. As befits a retirement enterprise, it’s a business built on having fun with art: They produce functional but decidedly offbeat pieces in the shapes of dogs, cats, camels, zebras, pigs, and other critters.

It’s a Jungle’s offerings also include a line of “endangered casseroles”—covered dishes with miniature pandas, whales, seals, and other rare animals riding their lids. And if you send a photo, you can even have your own cat or dog immortalized as a hand-made ceramic serving dish.