Field burning under fire.

Byline: The Register-Guard

The quiet demise of Rep. Paul Holvey's bill banning open field burning in Oregon is more than a testament to the muscle of the Willamette Valley grass seed industry. It also shows legislators' ambivalence toward Holvey's proposal. Lawmakers aren't quite ready to deliver what grass seed growers insist would be a crippling blow.

But growers would be foolish to regard their victory as permanent. Pressure to reduce or eliminate field burning will build, and the search for alternatives must intensify.

The issue of field burning has been dormant politically since 1991, when the Legislature mandated a substantial phase-down in burned acreage. That action followed a shift in the terms of the field-burning debate. In earlier years, objections to field burning primarily had been aesthetic - the plumes of smoke would turn summer skies gray, casting a pall over the sunny afternoons cherished by people in Western Oregon. By 1991, however, the controversy had acquired a public health dimension - three years earlier, seven people died when blinding smoke drifted across Interstate 5 in Linn County, causing a chain reaction pileup.

The public health argument has gained force ever since. Holvey's bill to ban burning had the support of the Oregon Medical Association, the American Lung Association of Oregon and the Lane County Medical Society. They all express concern about the health effects of smoke from field burning, particularly on children, the elderly and people with asthma or other conditions that affect breathing. These concerns arise from a growing awareness of lung damage caused by fine particulates such as those found in smoke, and were compelling enough to persuade the House Health Care Committee to approve Holvey's proposal for a ban.

Holvey, a Eugene Democrat, reinforced the public health case for a field burning ban with an economic argument. By the time the phase-down was complete in 1998, the 1991 legislation had reduced field burning by half, to 50,000 acres a year. Yet the acreage planted in grass seed industry has grown by a third, and the dollar volume of sales has nearly tripled. Previous restrictions on field burning clearly haven't shut down the grass seed industry.

Still, grass seed growers have some compelling arguments of their own, and these prevailed Monday before the House Agriculture Committee. Field burning smoke is a minor component of Willamette Valley air pollution - far bigger sources are vehicle emissions and smoke from stoves and fireplaces. Field burning smoke is concentrated during the summer months, while the Willamette Valley's air quality is worst during wintertime atmospheric inversions.

Equally compelling is the testimony from grass seed farmers themselves. Losing the last remnant of their ability to burn fields, they say, would damage a half-billion-dollar industry. They insist that the phase-down of recent years is not proof that further reductions are possible - to the contrary, they can't afford to lose what's left of an agricultural practice that still provides essential protection against pests and disease.

The political deck also is stacked against a field burning ban. Legislators from rural districts could be relied upon to oppose Holvey's bill. In addition, the Portland area is rarely affected by field burning smoke, so many urban legislators saw Holvey's proposal as a chance to cast a pro-agriculture vote.

Yet Holvey's defeat is not a victory for the grass seed industry - only a reprieve. Efforts to keep the upper Willamette Valley smoke-free often shift field burning smoke into the canyons and foothills of the Cascades, and people in such communities as Sweet Home are growing weary of suffering for the benefit of people in Eugene and Springfield.

This week, the American Lung Association ranked metropolitan Lane County as having the ninth-worst air quality in the nation for short-term periods, partly because of field burning.

Holvey's bill is dead, but pressure for a ban did not die with it. Grass seed farmers would be well-advised to prepare for a smoke-free future.