The annual restrictions on non-rangeland burning in the Flint Hills begin Wednesday.
The Flint Hills Smoke Management Plan comes as the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, Kansas Department of Agriculture and Kansas Livestock Association are urging landowners to hold off on controlled burns — if they can — so as not to make life more difficult for residents either dealing with coronavirus or dealing with allergies and other respiratory concerns that mimic the virus. On KVOE’s Morning Show on Tuesday, Lyon County Extension agent Brian Rees says ranchers that ultimately decide not to burn could well have some negative financial impact — to the tune of a quarter-pound of lost gain per head of cattle per day.
Rees encourages rural landowners to go online to www.ksfire.org for more information and also to use the Smoke Management Tool to get a better sense of how smoke from their fires may travel on a given day.
Weather has not given a lot of good burning opportunities so far this calendar year, and Rees estimates less than a quarter of the land considered available for burning has been burned so far.
