Field burns to remain secret

BOISE – Locations of upcoming field burns will remain classified after a House committee rejected a bill from a Moscow lawmaker Thursday that would have required the state Department of Agriculture to notify the public where farmers would be burning.

Republican Rep. Tom Trail sponsored HB 568 because of what he said is a problem with Latah County residents alerting law enforcement and fire officials to fires that turn out to be permitted field burns.

“It taxes and stretches the manpower of the sheriff’s department; it also costs the taxpayers,” Trail said. “Knowing the location in advance of an approved burn would … enable our deputies to respond to other emergencies for our citizens.”

But most House Agricultural Affairs Committee members agreed with agriculture representatives who argued that the county simply could enact its own fire ordinance, as many other counties in Idaho have done.

The committee voted 5-2 to reject the bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, and Rep. Shirley Ringo, D-Moscow.

Telling people where burns take place and when would save law enforcement officials a lot of time and money, said Jennifer McFarland, a detective with the Latah County Sheriff’s Office.

McFarland said the office received 183 fire calls last year, including 46 false alarms due to controlled field burns. Officials risked their lives unnecessarily, she said.

“If we had known that those burns were indeed controlled and permitted burns, we would not have been compelled to drive at those speeds to go down those county roads,” she said.

McFarland said after the meeting that a fire ordinance at the county level is just not as strong as a state statute.

“Statewide legislation would alleviate the need for people and farmers to have to bear the burden,” she said.

North Idaho farmer Joe Anderson, who lives near Potlatch and serves on the Idaho Wheat Commission, said posting field location and acreage information on the Agricultural Department’s Web site could put Idaho farmers at a disadvantage because competitors could be able to determine what they’re growing and for what company.

Anderson said the farmers he knows already notify the public about their burns.

“We find it’s this kind of cooperation that is much more productive than regulation,” Anderson said.

But no one told Latah County resident Martha Cottam about a neighbor’s scheduled field burn, and she and her family were away camping when the fire got out of control and scorched their property.

“We never would have gone camping if we had any idea that the field was going to be burned,” Cottam told the committee. “This experience this year was absolutely terrifying.”

Committee member Dennis Lake, R-Blackfoot, an agribusinessman, said that because farmers don’t usually get the OK to burn until shortly before they ignite a field, Cottam’s situation wouldn’t have changed under Trail’s proposal. The family would have been gone by the time the notice went out, Lake said.

After the committee rejected the bill, Trail urged Latah County farmers, law enforcement and fire officials and county commissioners to work on a better notification system.

The bill was supported by the Idaho Conservation League, Conservation Voters for Idaho and the Idaho chapter of the American Lung Association.