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The grasses that are being demonized provide significant amounts of oxygen and sequester carbon in the soil (except when the crops aren't growing in the summer), filter rain runoff, reduce dust the rest of the year.  How much oxygen do you produce? 

 The 10% of grass seed acreage still using field burning a few days of the year have very few (if any) viable and economical options - that is why they are still doing it.  Not all grasses can be managed the same way.  Spend some time learning about why they do what they do and you might be doing the same thing. 

Grow food?  Farms used to grow a lot of wheat in the foothills east of Salem where the fine fescues are grown (a long lived perennial crop that needs burning to stay productive) and the erosion was bad enough to cause significant problems in area streams.  So they are doing what is recommended by Federal agencies (NRCS) - even with the temporal problems associated with field burning.  Little else but annual ryegrass can be grown in chunks of the south valley.

I don't see any comments providing valid, profitable alternatives for the seed growers who are still using field burning to stay in business.  It is easy to tell someone else what to do, but with no viable solutions, is a bit empty and false.  Provide real alternatives before closing the door on what works.

Life isn't risk free - we all drive cars without thinking, yet tens of thousands die from this each year! 

posted 4 years, 1 month ago
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