Grass Growers Ready To Start Burning Fields Critics Say Wildfires Causing More Than Enough Smoke Already

If Rathdrum Prairie grass growers torch their fields as scheduled today, clean air advocates say it will just add smoke to the fires.

Raging forest fires in Central Washington already are clouding the skies near Sandpoint. That area often gets the brunt of smoke from North Idaho grass fires.

“Our fear is that the fire smoke, which could be called an act of God, will be exacerbated by the intentionally created grass smoke,” said Art Long, president of the Clean Air Coalition. “The two together could create a serious problem for people with breathing difficulties.”

Grass industry officials argue the hot, dry season that’s causing the forest fires will help reduce the accumulation of smoke from grass field burns.

The controversial practice of burning grass fields to stimulate crops and wipe out weeds, insects and disease will begin today in North Idaho, weather permitting, said Al Haslebacher, executive secretary of the Intermountain Grass Growers Association, a trade group with about 400 members in Washington and Idaho. Harvests are about 90 percent complete on nearly 8,800 acres.

Spokane area growers won’t decide until Aug. 9 when to start burning, said Lisa Woodard, spokeswoman for the Spokane County Air Pollution Control Authority. The annual practice typically ignites tensions with tourism interests who fear large smoke plumes will drive off visitors. Environmentalists worry about air quality, especially this year.

On Friday, small particulates matter tiny enough for humans to inhale - averaged 85 micrograms per cubic meter of air in a 24-hour period near Sandpoint, said Dan Redline, air quality analyst with the Idaho Division of Environmental Quality. That had dropped to the mid-40s by Monday, which is still about 10 micrograms higher than normal.

Anything over 150 for a 24-hour period is considered unhealthy. “What this indicates to me is the forest fires are raising our pollutant concentrations higher than what’s expected at this time of year,” Redline said.

But grass fires will not add much, Haslebacher said. They usually run between 60 and 110 micrograms per cubic meter - but only in short intervals.

“Those fires are emitting hundreds of times the amount that a few acres of grass fires do,” he said.

Dry weather means grass fires will burn hotter, faster and cleaner, torching up to 150 acres in 15 minutes. Moist weather, like last summer’s, allows fields to smolder. George Brabb, president of the Kootenai Environmental Alliance, sits on a committee that establishes the voluntary restrictions. The committee has never talked about limiting grass burning during forest fires, but he would like to.

“You can look out over Coeur d’Alene Lake and tell by the haze there’s a bit of smoke in the air,” he said.

As in previous years, burning will be allowed only 14 days and not on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays or Labor Day. All burning must take place within a 45-day period, which kicks off when the first grass blades are lit.

Last year’s wet summer pushed back lawn seed harvest, and forced an early end to the burn season.

“We had over a thousand acres unburned,” Haslebacher said. “We had one grower who had to take out hundreds of acres of fields because they weren’t productive.

Of course, this year’s hot fires will send a plume of smoke 5,000 feet skyward, which will stress people out from the visual impact,” Haslebacher said.

DEQ has established a telephone hotline to field complaints during summer burning. In Coeur d’Alene, call 769-0303.

Grass growers ready to burn fields Critics say wildfires causing more than enough smoke