Reversal of field-burning decision requested

SANDPOINT – Anti-burning activists have again asked a state judge to reverse a state Agriculture Department declaration that field burning is the only economically viable method for bluegrass growers to rid fields of fungus and shock the crop into better production.

The American Lung Association, the Idaho Conservation League and the locally formed group Safe Air for Everyone maintained that Agriculture Director Pat Takasugi’s decision to allow burning was based on outdated research and information taken out of context.

“The 2004 determination provides absolutely no reason why nonburn techniques proven successful in Oregon and Washington would not be successful in Idaho,” the clean air groups charged in their petition.

Filed in 1st District Court this week, the appeal mirrors one filed with the court a year ago to protest Takasugi’s approval of burning during 2003. The department has asked the court to dismiss that case since a new determination was made this year.

Burning critics claimed Takasugi relied on a limited number of studies supporting the burning decision while ignoring the hundreds of studies that convinced Washington to ban burning and Oregon to cut back burned acreage dramatically even as the industry prospers.

Takasugi, however, argued that the grass seed areas of Oregon and Washington are geographically and environmentally different from northern Idaho, and he pointed out repeatedly that while Washington has banned burning grass seed fields, the state still permits farmers to burn more than 140,000 acres of other commodity fields each year.

He also predicted burned acreage in Idaho this year would be down from the 88,000 acres burned last year because of a tightening insurance market and poor conditions for Kentucky bluegrass during the winter. Burning began earlier this month.

There has been little activity on several legal fronts while the Idaho Supreme Court determines the validity of a 2003 law legalizing burning under certain conditions but requiring growers to register their fields and limit burning to days designated by the state or face stiff penalties. The law protects growers following it from liability. The high court has heard arguments in the case but has yet to rule.

A month ago, a federal appellate court rejected anti-burning attempts to have the grass stubble declared a solid waste subject to federal regulation, which they hoped to use to stop the practice.