Illinois artist Kevin Veara has built a celebrated career as a painter of birds from his remote studio on the banks of the Sangamon River.

The tiny Scratch Brewing Company, in the forest of Ava, Illinois – just five miles from the Shawnee National Forest – forages and grows their own ingredients for the award-winning beer they brew. The grow-your-own philosophy has also made Scratch one of the best places to eat pizza in the US.

Joining us live in the WILL-TV studio, Leah Marlene performs the "Prairie Fire" theme song. 

Host Sarah Edwards decides to "Pedal the Preserves," which is a 67-mile bike ride along the Kickapoo Rail Trail, making stops at the Homer Lake Forest Preserve and Middle Fork River Forest Preserve.

In celebration of Earth Month, Prairie Fire presents "Cetacean (The Whale)," a one-hour special filmed by the Media and Cinema Studies students at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. This multimedia performance created by artists Deke Weaver and Jennifer Allen provides a look at the creation and presentation of the show, along with excerpts from last fall's live performance.