Acreage Cap Burns Growers Request For Its Elimination Comes After Most Other Restrictions Lifted

Spokane County grass growers are calling for elimination of a cap on the number of acres they burn, saying it hinders their ability to expand and farm profitably.

The request comes just days after state lawmakers lifted nearly every other restriction on the annual practice of burning grass fields.

The practice clears out weeds and disease and boosts yields of future lawn seed crops. But it also fills the skies with smoke in August and September, aggravating respiratory sufferers.

“It (the acreage cap) needs to be done away with,” says Marsha Daily, executive secretary of the Intermountain Grass Growers Association. “It does not do anything to help smoke management. It never has, never will.”

Daily said some farmers have seeded more bluegrass fields this spring in anticipation of the lifting of the acreage cap. If the cap is not removed, she said, it could hurt their ability to expand operations and earn a living.

The IGA made its request last week to the Spokane County Air Pollution Control Authority, which until recently regulated grass burning. That power was stripped away last month when Gov. Mike Lowry signed a law that prohibits SCAPCA from limiting the number of days that farmers can burn.

But the law kept in place SCAPCA’s historic cap on how many acres each farmer can burn. The cap is based on the largest number of acres burned on each farm from 1985-89.

Farmers also are limited to a countywide total of 35,000 acres that may be burned. They burned 25,000 acres in 1994.

SCAPCA director Eric Skelton said the caps were established in 1990 as the first step toward eliminating grass burning, a practice that health officials find offensive.

The SCAPCA board was preparing to drop the acreage caps when the state law was adopted, Skelton said. Under the law, however, the agency may be unable to remove the caps. SCAPCA’s attorney is studying the problem, and the earliest a change could be made is at SCAPCA’s June 1 board meeting.

Meanwhile, association members have agreed to police themselves and burn during a 45-day window that begins Aug. 15, Daily said. Farmers will have 22 days available for burning, excluding Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays.

Farmers in North Idaho will start at the same time but will limit themselves to just 14 burn days.