Burn restrictions are underway across the Flint Hills.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment is launching its annual restrictions as part of the agency’s Smoke Management Plan.
Flint Hills residents may have gotten some confusing messages last week when Wichita media outlets ran stories saying different counties would be dealing with burn bans. Lyon County Emergency Management Director Jarrod Fell says a lot of residents may have simply read the headline, thus missing the information about the Smoke Management Plan.
The Smoke Management Plan essentially halts most non-essential burns. There are some exceptions, including fires for outdoor cooking including campfires and fires for ceremonial purposes.
As burn season continues, The Sierra Club of Kansas is asking ag producers to take currently nontraditional methods to control the smoke output. Air Quality Committee Chair Craig Volland says the current practice of spring burns is mainly based on research from Oklahoma State University that has since been invalidated. He urged landowners to burn in the fall among other changes in practice.
Rancher Brian Keith of Allen says the push towards more fall burns is relatively new. He says there are significant differences in spring and fall burns, based on his experience the past two years.
Keith says fall burns are effective against sericea lespedeza, but that approach may not be effective for ranchers that graze their cattle in the fall because it eliminates that food source — and it may adjust harvest plans for crops.
Ag producer Mike Collins of Hamilton tells KVOE News a full-blown shift to fall burns likely won’t happen, but he says having burns at different times of the year makes sense — especially when it comes to controlling sericea lespedeza while helping other nutritious plants grow and thrive.
The Sierra Club is also urging producers to burn their fields on a three-year rotation. Local landowners say they have been rotating their burns, but there are a number of factors involved as they decide which fields to burn, including short-term weather. Also, Collins says smoke issues will persist because there may be less acreage per burn, but there will be more biomass — more grass — to burn in those smaller zones.
In normal years, close to 2.5 million acres of Flint Hills grassland is burned every year. County and state officials expect a compressed and active fire season this year after a lengthy and wet winter. Other places affected by the smoke, notably Lincoln, Neb., have already alerted their residents about the impact of potential burns on their air quality. Volland says the Sierra Club’s goal is not to end rangeland burns, but rather to improve air quality for residents across the Midwest, whether they be in larger cities or rural areas.
For more information about the Flint Hills Smoke Management Plan and the related Smoke Management Tool, go online to www.ksfire.org. For more information about Lyon County burn practices, call 341-3210 or your local fire department if you live in the city limits. To report the start and end of a legal controlled burn, meaning one where you have acquired a free burn permit beforehand, call the Lyon County Emergency Communications Center at 343-4225.
