Background
Idaho Field Burning
Click here for high-resolution images
Watch our field burning video
Each year, from July to October, Idaho's vast countryside is plagued with smoke that rises hundreds of feet in the air, billowing across highways, into schoolyards and homes. The smoke comes from massive field burns, sometimes up to 4500 acres (as on September 15 of 2005) at a time. Grass farmers use the technique to remove crop residue even though mechanical means of chopping the straw have been demonstrated to work equally well in two other states.
Across Idaho, during the burn season, smoke and ash cover homes and highways, golf courses and bike trails. Hospitals have reported smoke in ventilation systems; neighbors have heard their own indoor smoke alarms go off because of field burns happening nearby; asthma patients are forced into emergency rooms or kept indoors when burns occur. Areas around Coeur d'Alene, in Kootenai County and Worley in Benewah County are often hardest hit, including fields that are rented and burned by out-of-state growers within the boundaries of the Coeur d'Alene Indian Reservation. Benewah County is home to lakes and rivers and natural areas unmatched anywhere else in the country.
These field burns are so invasive to Idahoans that from 2001 to 2004, the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality received over 2,700 complaints, according to the Sandpoint-based group, Safe Air for Everyone (SAFE). Idaho DEQ has received calls from as far north as British Columbia, as well as Montana and the greater Spokane metropolitan area.
Smoke and flaming embers from the grass burns can travel many miles far from the source of the fire. Local firefighters are kept on call during field burns, and on at lease six occasions this past summer, firefighters were called in to douse fires that had gotten out of control and moved into nearby trees and fields.
The pictures here show how devastating and encompassing field burning is to the surrounding areas. While field burning proponents sometimes argue that the field burns happen far from any homes or towns, as many of these pictures illustrate, smoke is certainly visible from nearby schools and hospitals. Security guards accompany the photographers to ensure the safety of the smoke observers documenting the harm to the public, as they have been followed and blocked from public roads at times while doing their work. Washington has outlawed field burning and Oregon has reduced burning by nearly 90%, moving instead to viable methods of field cultivation that are much less invasive and much less deadly.
In July 2005, the Environmental Protection Agency exempted field burning from a general ban on open burning in Idaho's federally approved clean air plan. Earthjustice representing SAFE and the American Lung Association of Idaho filed a federal court challenge to EPA's action. We contend that EPA's approval of the field burning exemption violates the Clean Air Act and threatens public health. Briefing in the case in ongoing, and a hearing is expected some time in 2006.
|
Images of field-burning in Idaho:
All of these pictures were taken on the Coeur d'Alene Indian reservation in either Benewah County or Kootenai County, Idaho between August 31, 2005 and September 27, 2005. Click on the thumbnails for larger images.
All photos: Jessica Caplan/SAFE |
|
|
Huge flames run right along highways, throwing thick smoke across the roads. This picture was taken in Benewah County, south of Plummer, ID, looking east over Highway 60. |
|
|
Smoke towers over hills and treetops in Benewah County, just northeast of Plummer, ID. |
|
|
Smoke can travel for miles. This photo, taken Sept. 7, 2005, is from a burn located near the Washington and Idaho state line, along Highway 60. |
|
|
This thick black smoke is from a wheat burn. Unlike grass burns, which produce a white smoke, wheat burns a dark black, and still manage to spread smoke for miles beyond the actual burn site. The photo was taken in Benewah County, along Lovell Valley Rd., just adjacent to the burn. |
|
|
Burn sites are sometimes located near inhabited buildings, as is shown in this picture, where smoke rises far above the building in the lower left corner. |
|
|
Fire again runs right along highways. This picture was taken in Benewah County, south of Plummer, ID. |
|
|
Another wheat burn in the distance spreads smoke across the horizon. Burns usually occur in multiple areas and can cumulatively impact homes, offices, hospitals and schools with poor air quality for miles in every direction. |
|
|
This photo is of a burn looking east over Benewah Rd. just east of I-95. Smoke is blowing directly across Benewah Rd. |
|
|
Thick smoke envelopes Lovell Valley Rd. from a field burn in Benewah County. Traffic accidents are common when field burns occur, and drivers are often warned to proceed with caution through the smokescreen. |
|
|
This photo is of a field burn in Benewah County that spread to a nearby wheat field and required fire fighters to keep it under control. The fire crews responded to an emergency call that the fire was getting out of control, and remained on the scene well into the following day. |
|
|
This photo was taken in Benewah County, east of Tensend, ID, a small town that houses the tribal school. |
|
|
Blackened land creeps into sight as both grass and wheat burns occurred along Four Corners Rd, east of I-95. |
|
|
This photo is of a field burn in Plummer, ID just west of I-95 along Fairview Rd. The building in the foreground is a preschool where children are playing in the front playground area. Smoke from this fire is not rising, but is being pushed towards the school by winds. The school buses in the lower left corner are just out of reach of the dangerous smoke clouds. |
|
|
Sunlight is blotted out behind the thick smoke of field burns in Kootenai County, near the Coeur d'Alene Casino, just north of Worley, ID. |
|
|
A horizon of flame creates a thick blanket of black smoke just west of I-95 near the Coeur d'Alene Casino. |
|
|
Near the base of this smoke plume in Kootenai County near Worley, ID, is an illegible sign that reads "Smoke Over Road/Proceed At Own Risk." |
|
|
A wall of smoke blocks the sky in Kootenai County. Weller Road, located near the fire, was not passable during this burn. |
|
|
Roads are often impassable during field burning due to decreased visibility. Fatal accidents have been attributed to smoke and low visibility. |
Print this page
Email this page
