No Permit Needed To Burn Logging Slash Land Board Decides To Scrap Controversial Proposed Rule

Clarification: People burning logging debris in Idaho will continue to need burning permits from May 10 to Oct. 20, as they have since 1925. Changes in the Idaho Forest Practices rules, reported in Tuesday’s edition, only relate to burning slash during low fire-danger months.

It won’t take a permit to burn logging debris, the Idaho Land Board decided Tuesday, snuffing out one of the most controversial proposed state logging rules.

Mandatory burning permits were one of a half-dozen changes in the Idaho Forest Practices Act considered by the Land Board. In the end, the board moderately tightened state logging regulations.

The new rules will require loggers to get permission to use tractors to pull logs out of steep, stream-side areas. The original proposal would have ruled out any tractor skidding in stream-side areas with a slope greater than 45 percent.

The new rules also call for keeping heavy equipment 30 feet from stream banks when the waterway feeds Idaho’s more pristine streams and rivers. In other cases, the stream protection zone remains five feet on either side of the bank.

When the Lands Department shopped its proposed changes around, environmentalists criticized the 30-foot buffer. They contended the off-limits zone needed to be at least 300 feet to keep sediment out of streams.

The most heated debate, however, came over a proposal to require landowners to obtain a permit before burning logging debris or slash.

It was designed to help Idaho comply with the federal Clean Air Act.

The Land Board instead opted for voluntary guidelines to help improve air quality, said Jim Colla, state forest practices coordinator. That includes burning only clean, well-cured slash piles and checking with the state Division of Environmental Quality for an air quality forecast before torching slash, Colla said.

The forest industry, state and U.S. Forest Service already comply with those guidelines in North Idaho, Colla said. This is an attempt to include small wood-lot owners.

The board potentially changed the burning landscape in one significant way. It recognized fire as a “forest practice,” meaning it can only be regulated by the state.

In the past, landowners had to get a burning permit if their property was within a fire district requiring one. Kootenai County and Hayden Lake fire districts both require permits.

The proposed regulations generated 10 times the usual number of comments. But the board made its decision Tuesday with little discussion and no audience.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: BYLINE = Ken Olsen Staff writer Staff writers Julie Titone and Betsy Russell contributed to this report.