Agricultural Burning & Earth Day

On November 8, 2011 the Agricultural Burning Practices and Research Task Force set new fee levels for agricultural burn permits in Washington state. These fee increases were approved during the 2012 Legislature’s special session that ended April 11. The proposed changes would increase the field burning and spot burning fee by $7.50 to $37. The fee for burning piles would be $80 for the first 80 tons as opposed to the first 100 tons. Public hearings and workshops hosted by the DOE to explain these proposed changes will be held April 24 and 26. The DOE is accepting written comments on the proposed fee increases until April 30. For more information visit the Department of Ecology website.

Officially, Earth Day is Sunday, April 22, but many Earth Day events are starting early. One of these “early bird” gatherings is the fourth annual “Earth Day Extravaganza Environmental Fair” going on today in Saltwater State Park. Presented by Washington Parks & Recreation, King County Housing Authority AmeriCorps, and Federal Way School AmeriCorps teams, the event is open to the public and is free. Tom Tidwell, Chief of the U.S. Forest Service shares this message about Earth Day.

TIDWELL: Earth Day for the forest service is an opportunity for us to bring to everyone’s attention the importance of the environments, of caring for the environments that we all rely on.
And it’s not just for the clean water, it’s not just for the clean air, but it’s the wildlife habitats, the recreational settings, it’s the quality of life that we all experience and depend on.

I’m Lacy Gray and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Northwest Ag Information Network.