Matt Hahn, a forestry student involved with Saluki Fire Dawgs, helps other students execute a controlled burn on Thursday at Drapers Bluff, a rural area in Lick Creek, under the supervision of forestry professor Charles Ruffner.

This is the eighth time in 15 years that the registered student organization has done a controlled burn on this land, Ruffner said.

“We want to maintain the Native American aesthetic,” he said of the 12 acres believed to have originally been occupied by a Native American tribe.

By burning the underbrush, he said, the students help to eliminate the invasive species and preserve the native trees, such as oaks. About a dozen students participated.

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