Inevitable Result Of Relentless Change
Jacklin Seed Co. and grass industry allies can’t win for agreeing to lose. No sooner had Jacklin officials unveiled plans by most Rathdrum Prairie farmers to phase out field burning than critics pounced.
Only half the growers are involved in the decision, sniffed some. A 10-year phaseout period is too long, cried others. “Foul,” screamed a third group; the growers are factoring in land already converted to residential and commercial use. We prefer a few hazy days of summer to a prairie full of subdivisions, still others said.
Meanwhile, state Rep. Wayne Meyer, R-Rathdrum, the region’s most prominent grower, and the Intermountain Grass Growers Association remained silent. Meyer and six other farmers who didn’t sign off on the burn cease-fire probably feel betrayed. They’ll be under even greater pressure to stop burning now.
Unlike the Jacklin brothers and other colleagues, they’re trying to deny the inevitable. The end of field burning on the Rathdrum Prairie has been coming for a while. The region has grown too much to accommodate the practice much longer. If anything, the voluntary phaseout has bought growers time to convert their land to other crops or sell it before a lawsuit or the federal government shuts them down.
The agreement calls for a burn reduction of 10 percent of the acreage each year beginning this summer. Also, growers agreed to stop burning altogether within a year of the discovery of any economically viable alternative.
We hope the growers find an alternative to field burning. We’d like to see them around for a lot longer.
The growers have been good neighbors for decades, providing an important boost to the local economy and invaluable environmental benefits. Their lush fields filter pollutants from surface water on its way to the Rathdrum Aquifer. And only someone with smoke in their eyes would prefer subdivisions to miles of green farmland.
The bell began tolling for the region’s grass industry last year, when a two-thirds cutback in Washington field burning was mandated by the state Department of Ecology. And it has continued to toll. Last week, it gonged again when a jury ordered two Spokane County farmers to pay $918,000 to a Freeman man injured in a vehicle accident caused by their field smoke.
Jacklin and the nine growers who endorsed the phaseout pact deserve credit for realizing the bell is tolling for them.
, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = D.F. Oliveria For the editorial board