It’s no secret that where there’s smoke there’s fire, which is why it’s strange that the Idaho Department of Agriculture will no longer publicize the location and acreage amounts for grass fields that are about to be torched.

The controversial burning season is here, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is urging the state to do more to publicize impending fires in North Idaho. The smoke from the fires is a legitimate health concern for those living downwind.

Instead, the state is quietly reeling in the amount of information to be released. The state’s telephone hotline and Web site used to publicize location, acreage and time windows for burns. Now they only divulge what counties are involved and time frames.

The state Department of Agriculture has justified the change by invoking a suddenly discovered law designed to protect southern Idaho farmers against those trying to discover the types of seeds they were using. Back when that law was instituted, farmers were reluctant to submit samples to the state for disease-control purposes for fear that trade secrets would become public record.

The law makes sense in that context, but it’s silly to apply it to a smoke management program. Those concerned about smoke don’t care about the variety of grass being grown. They just want to know where the burning will take place.

Surely state regulators can see the difference, but they are adopting a hands-tied position. Wayne Hoffman, a spokesman for the state Department of Agriculture, told The Spokesman-Review: “That is what the statute says, and so far we have not been given a reason to believe the law ought to be amended.”

The reason is obvious: The law wasn’t designed for this application. If the department truly believes that this law is suddenly applicable to smoke management, then it should lobby the Legislature to amend it.

Grass growers, with the help of the state, have won a hard-fought legal battle to burn their fields. Perhaps the state is emboldened by that success and now feels it can tell surrounding residents and the feds to butt out. We hope that isn’t the case.

In recent years, the state and growers have taken positive strides in alerting people to impending burns and have been more sensitive to downwinders about which days to burn. The state’s sudden decision to release fewer details is a step backward and it will only darken the image of grass farmers.

And besides, once the fires have started, the secret is out. Why not do the neighborly thing and identify those fields in advance?