Conditions Likely To Delay Field Burning Weather Not Favorable; Fields Not Burned Last Year Doing Poorly This Season, Officials Say

A relatively wet summer is plaguing grass seed farmers, already hurt by too much winter and, in some cases, the inability to burn fields last season.

It means field burning likely won’t start until mid-August on the Rathdrum Prairie, although some farmers are having such poor crops they don’t need to bother harvesting, said Linda Clovis of the Intermountain Grass Growers Association.

“The long, wet winter had a tremendous impact, particularly on Kentucky bluegrass,” Clovis said. “And those who didn’t burn saw a dramatic decrease in production.

“There are fields with virtually zero yield - almost a total loss.”

Fields that yield 1,500 pounds of seed per acre when they are burned are eking out 190 pounds an acre this year, far below what’s profitable, Clovis said.

Most of those fields are in Washington, where the state Department of Ecology is phasing out field burning. Washington State University cooperative extension officials confirm that fields that weren’t burned last year are this year’s poor performers.

Grass burning, however, can make breathing difficult for people with asthma and other respiratory problems.

The grass burning season can officially begin Aug. 4 on the Rathdrum Prairie. Clovis predicts it will be mid-August before the first field is torched.

The Idaho Division of Environmental Quality is in the process of securing a telephone number for people to call and register their comments during the field-burning season. It will be on-line by late next week, said Dan Redline of the DEQ.

Growers will be able to burn their fields for a total of 14 days over the course of 45 days. The 45-day clock begins running when the first field is torched.

There will be no burning on Fridays, Saturdays or Sundays until after Labor Day. Then, each farmer can re-burn up to 500 acres on Fridays.

Each grower is allowed a 10-acre test burn each day and that does not count as a burning day.

Weather monitoring stations in Coeur d’Alene, Sandpoint, Pinehurst and Rathdrum will track conditions so burning is done on the days when the smoke is most likely to disperse. If particulate levels exceed certain limits on any given day, the burning will be shut down for the day.

The Coeur d’Alene Tribe also is beefing up its smoke monitoring program this year. It now has radio contact with each farmer to enable it to stop burning more rapidly when weather conditions shift.

Special 1-1/2-mile zones have been established around DeSmet, Plummer and Worley and growers in those areas will be restricted to burning only on days when the smoke won’t go to the communities.

It is too early to predict how many acres will be burned this year. Last year 26,000 acres were burned in Spokane County; 8,000 acres on the Rathdrum Prairie; and 19,600 acres on the Coeur d’Alene Reservation.

, DataTimes