Oregon to end field burning

SALEM – The Oregon Legislature decided Monday to phase out most field burning by Willamette Valley grass seed farmers, a practice dating back to the 1940s that sends up plumes of smoke so thick they can sometimes blot out the sun.

As the 2009 Legislature headed toward adjournment, the House voted 31-29 to approve the grass seed measure, one of the most contentious environmental issues of the session. It now goes to Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who plans to sign it.

Grass seed growers set the fires to burn the stubble left after harvest to kill off weeds and pests and to sanitize their fields before the next planting to help produce the purest seed possible.

The grass seed industry argues the practice has helped Oregon become the world’s largest producer of grass seed.

Oregon supplies nearly 50 percent of the seed that’s used to grow grass on soccer fields, golf courses and lawns around the globe.

However, the industry lost out to health concerns.

Critics of field burning say the smoke created each summer is bad for people’s health – especially those suffering from asthma.

The measure would phase out field burning by 2010, meaning this summer will be the last in which grass seed farmers will be allowed to burn their fields.

The measure would allow limited burning to continue on up to 15,000 acres of steep terrain that produce varieties of seed that do not do well unless the fields are burned.

Legislators heard testimony earlier this year from who people live downwind from the field burns who said the smoke makes it tough to breath and causes health problems.

“Oregonians have suffered every summer due to field burning smoke,” said Rep. Paul Holvey, D-Eugene, chief sponsor the bill. “The health risks posed by field burning are well known and this bill is a step toward reducing those risks.”

House Republicans argued that the bill’s proponents hadn’t produced scientific data to show that people are being made ill by field burning. They also said the legislation is sending a bad message to the $500 million-a-year grass seed industry and to agriculture in general.

“The priority should be to do something for Oregon agriculture,” said Rep. Vic Gilliam, R-Silverton.

The debate over field burning intensified after a 1988 chain-reaction traffic wreck near Albany that claimed seven lives after a field burn blazed out of control, enveloping Interstate 5 with dense smoke.

The public furor over the accident prompted the 1991 Legislature to approve a phased reduction of burnable acreage.

Since the law was fully implemented, the number of acres burned each year has been limited to 65,000, from a high of 320,000 acres in 1972.

Proponents of the field burning phaseout legislation say other field-cleansing methods, including more frequent soil tilling, are available to the industry.

“Experts have concluded that most grass seed species do not need to be burned,” Holvey said. “Oregon will continue to be the grass seed capital but with improved protection of public health.”