April arrives Thursday, which means the Flint Hills Smoke Management Plan also comes to the KVOE listening area.
The plan allows for controlled pasture burns, ceremonial fires and grilling, but debris piles, crop residue and construction waste cannot be burned through the month. Lyon County Emergency Management Director Jarrod Fell says people need to realize the Smoke Management Plan is monitored by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, not by counties — so people need to report violations to KDHE.
If people notice waste burns not connected to allowed activity, they need to call KDHE at 785-296-1551.
Fell says the longstanding practice of obtaining burn permits before prescribed fires and calling in activity before and after the fire will not change. Those need to be reported to the Lyon County Emergency Communication Center at 343-4225.
The start of the plan, in place now for over a decade, comes as the area has seen a high to extreme fire danger since this past weekend. Lyon and neighboring counties have seen numerous out-of-control grass fires taking place simultaneously over the past month, with several burning well over 1,000 acres before they are fully extinguished.
More information about the Flint Hills Smoke Management Plan, including the smoke modeling tool, is available online at www.ksfire.org.
