City works to curtail smokey skies

The view across Interstate 5 from Ashland Middle School on March 5 is obscured by smoke from open burns. Orville Hector | Daily Tidings

Residents may face fewer smoke-filled days as more cities across the Rogue Valley ban open burning and require non-certified wood stoves to be replaced when homes are sold.

Talent and Phoenix recently banned open burning within their city limits, while Medford and Jacksonville already had restrictions, said John Becker, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality Western Region Air Quality Manager.

Ashland City Councilors are considering whether to adopt an open burning ban. They could allow exceptions for burning wildfire fuels and noxious weeds.

City Councilors are scheduled to talk again about restrictions on open burning at their next regular meeting on April 3.

On Friday, the city council voted unanimously to require that non-certified wood stoves be removed from homes when they change hands.

Ashland joins Talent, Phoenix, Medford, Jacksonville, Central Point, Eagle Point and Shady Cove in adopting the stove requirement. Jackson County Commissioners also approved the regulation on stoves, although they did not ban open burning in the county, Becker said.

Becker has spent the last several months asking city councils and the Jackson County Commission to help reduce smoke. Without new measures, the Valley's Air Quality Maintenance Area could fail to meet tightening federal regulations on small airborne particles that lodge deep in the lungs and cause health problems.

Open burning within Ashland's city limits is already waning.

In 2004, Ashland Fire & Rescue issued 138 open burning permits. That number dipped to 112 permits in 2005, and sank further to 90 permits in 2006, fire department records show.

Homeowners appear to be using other methods to dispose of yard debris, including mulching, chipping, recycling and taking material to BioMass One in White City, where it is burned to produce energy, according to Fire Division Chief Margueritte Hickman.

City rules already allow only the burning of dry, woody material — not leaves or grass clippings. Among other restrictions, burning is only allowed when the Jackson County Ventilation Index number is greater than 400.

With much of Ashland situated in forested hills, Ashland Fire & Rescue staff members asked the city council to ban some types of open burning while allowing others.

"Staff's recommendation was to not allow any burning in the city that wasn't wildfire fuels or noxious weeds-related," said Fire Chief Keith Woodley.

The fire department recommends chipping for woody debris, but that is not practical for all sites.

"Over the past five years, of the 190 acres of land that were treated for wildfire fuels reduction, 137 acres — or 71 percent — of the lands that were treated were inaccessible to a chipper," staff members wrote in a March memo to the council. "On these lands, burn permits were issued to help reduce the fire hazard."

Ashland Fire & Rescue also has applied for a $30,000 grant to fight weeds.

Burning is sometimes the most efficient and effective method for dealing with weeds. Invasive Scotch broom shouldn't be transported because that spreads the plant's seed pods. Himalayan blackberries are difficult to chip or haul off property, Woodley said.

In the Oregon Legislature, Senate Bill 338 would require the removal of non-certified stoves when homes are sold throughout the state.

Staff writer Vickie Aldous can be reached at 479-8199 or vlaldous@yahoo.com.