BROOKINGS — An open burning ban was enacted in Brookings County on April 7, but it’s a somewhat porous one that has exceptions available for landowners who might need them.
The 4-1 vote by county commissioners — with Commissioner Doug Post casting the lone “nay” vote — came following a discussion that ranged from whether the ban was necessary at all to specific wording in the county’s existing rules to those aforementioned exceptions.
“You visited the local fire chiefs. Can you give us their input a little bit?” Commissioner Shawn Hostler inquired of Richard Haugen, the County Development Department’s deputy director.
Haugen said he met with Dave Jacobsen, chairman of the Brookings County Fire Chiefs Association, and the other chiefs.
“There’s kind of a mixed review, but with the dry conditions that are still there, there’s still a danger out there with the moisture that we did have this past weekend,” Haugen explained. “There were two fires (April 6) out in the county, so it’s still dry. You can enact it — if moisture and the conditions improve, you can rescind it and take it off at any time.”
Commissioner Larry Jensen followed up with a question regarding the burn ban’s effect on producers’ land management practices for acres enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program, since April is a critical month to get material burned off their property if their contract states that.
“They would not be prohibited from doing that, but they would still need to call in to (Brookings Dispatch at 605-692-2113) to let them know they’re going to have a controlled burn out there for that,” Haugen said.
The ban also generally doesn’t affect the use of burn barrels, grills or designated campgrounds, provided safety guidelines are followed. Furthermore, landowners without CRP worries can also request permission to set controlled burns, but certain steps must be taken — something that Jensen asked about as well.
“When we do have a burn ban, and somebody wants to burn — they call in — doesn’t the fire chief in that area go out and inspect what they’re going to burn?” he queried.
“They would need to get a hold of their fire chief, then the local fire chief would then approve that for that particular piece of property,” Haugen said, noting that the fire chief would have to be OK with outdoor conditions first.
Pursuing a similar line of questioning, Hostler asked about guidelines folks should be aware of.
“What are the guidelines for somebody doing a prescribed burn to make sure it doesn’t get out of hand?” he inquired. “Are there certain guidelines they need to take — like being present, not just lighting it and leaving?”
Haugen said the people conducting the prescribed burn need to be present during the burn. Furthermore, they must call dispatch to let them know there’s a burn going on. That ensures the fire chiefs in the county know about it in case phone calls come in from the public about the burning — and to be ready to help smother the flames if a burn goes out of control.
To do, or not to do
The need for a burn ban, even a temporary one, drew Post’s attention.
“I guess I’m fairly hesitant about — I don’t think burn bans on a two- to three-week basis are very effective to allow the people to use a fire in an effective way,” he said. “Yet, we have to be cognizant about our firemen and their donated time.”
Post noted that the red flag portion of the county’s current system — a burn ban is automatically triggered if the National Weather Service issues a red flag warning in the county or if the grassland fire danger rating reaches “very high” or “extreme” conditions — seems to be working well, but there might be ways to improve other parts of the system. How to accomplish that, though, was something he wasn’t immediately certain of.
Meanwhile, the ban drew support from a couple of other commissioners, along with Sheriff Marty Stanwick.
“I’m in favor of a burn ban,” Commissioner Kelly VanderWal said. “I was part of a fire (response) a couple weeks ago; nobody lived at the place. It had been started three or four days before that Saturday (March 28), and it was crazy windy. Embers jumped out of that pit and ended up on an old hog barn across the driveway. It could have been a big mess … the monitoring after the initial fire probably needed some improvement to avoid that situation.”
Stanwick suggested preventative measures for things such as burn barrels, since those fall within the “porous” part of the burn ban.
“We have to make sure we cover our burn barrels. You should have some type of screen on there so that if the wind does come up, it doesn’t get that blown around,” he said. “It’s dry out there right now. I’m just trying to save some firemen from doing a lot of extra work.”
Commissioner Dave Miller closed the discussion with an observation of his own.
“I think it’s good to be proactive about this. We’re not saying that people absolutely cannot burn,” he pointed out. “It’s just being a little more proactive and a little more thought and a little more intentional when they go to do a burn.”
Commissioners will have a couple of opportunities to revisit the issue over the next several weeks if conditions improve — and they very well might, with precipitation chances in the forecast starting April 11 and continuing through April 14.
— Contact Mondell Keck at [email protected].
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