At the end of April, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment said it suspected there was more controlled burn activity in the Flint Hills than it had last year — despite a request to slow down the burns at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. That thought was borne out in the agency’s Flint Hills Prescribed Fire Report issued Friday.
Lyon County saw over 159,000 acres burned this year, up nearly 25,000 acres from 2019. Lyon County had the fourth-most acres burned in the seven-county KVOE listening area, following Chase, Greenwood and Wabaunsee counties. Morris County came in fifth, followed by Osage and Coffey counties. Coffey and Greenwood counties were the only two area counties to see a decrease in acreage burned.
The analysis period was from Feb. 2 to April 30. The report includes controlled and uncontrolled burns or wildfires. All told, there were just under 2.5 million acres burned in Kansas and northern Oklahoma, up 22,000 acres from last year.
KDHE and the Kansas Department of Agriculture had asked landowners to reduce the scope of controlled burns as a precautionary measure with concerns hospitals and other health facilities could be overloaded with people suffering both air quality health issues and COVID-19 symptoms. Those concerns did not materialize as feared despite eight reported air quality exceedances between March 27 and April 11, six in Kansas and one each in Nebraska and South Dakota.
