Smoky skies due to burning of yard waste

COEUR d’ALENE — Air quality managers say the smoky skies seen across North Idaho are due to a large number of prescribed burns in the region, combined with people burning yard waste after the summer burn bans were lifted.

“There are a lot of prescribed burns going on right now,” said Ralph Paul, airshed coordinator for the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality. “With the burns I am aware of, I have been trying to limit them for the past week.”

But, Paul said, since burning restrictions have been lifted and no permits are required to burn yard waste and logging slash piles at this time of the year, there is no way to quantify how many burns are underway.

Paul said large land management companies, such as Stimson Lumber and Inland Empire Paper, are coordinating with the Forest Service and other agencies to ensure their burning activities limit the amount of smoke in the air. He said the collaboration is called the Idaho-Montana Airshed Group.

Paul said air quality is currently at the moderate level.