Clearing of lands for development leads to more smoke in skies

COEUR d’ALENE — When smoke started coming into his Hayden home Monday, Lynn Pehrson was upset.

“We can’t breathe inside our own home,” he said early that afternoon in a phone call with The Press. “This is out of hand. It’s super bad right now.”

The smoke was coming from slash pile burns at Government Way and Lancaster, an area being cleared for a development. The Pehrsons live within a quarter mile of it.

Lynn Pehrson said it was not just a traffic issue, but a health issue.

“This morning when I went down there about 8 it was bad,” he said. “I couldn’t see across Government Way.”

Later, about 2:30 p.m. when Pehrson drove by the site again, the wind shifted and the smoke had mostly dissipated.

Slash burning had been carried out in the area for a few weeks prior to Monday, from a site across U.S. 95. Smoke was bad on some of those days, too, Pehrson said. He called Northern Lakes Fire District to see if anything could be done.

He learned burn permits had been obtained from the Idaho Department of Lands and according to the Department of Environmental Quality, air quality was good Monday and there were no restrictions on outdoor burning.

Tyler Dreschel, NLFD fire marshal, reviewed the situation.

“They are allowed to do what they’re doing,” he said.

NLFD Fire Chief Pat Riley visited the site Monday afternoon, could see clearly in all directions, and said the smoke was not hazardous for travel.

Dreschel said the slash piles were large and smoke was lower and thicker at times Monday and that was most likely due to green timber, which does not burn as hot or as fast as dead timber and generates more smoke.

Later, though, smoke drifted higher.

He said this is the time of year outdoor burning will increase in Kootenai County.

“With all the new development around Kootenai County, land is being cleared at a rapid pace. Many of these developments are previously treed lots and the developers are removing trees for the construction of new homes,” a NLFD press release said Monday.

“As the lots are being cleared the vegetation from the sites are being burned as large slash piles, outdoor burning is allowed as long as Idaho Department of Environmental Quality signifies a green air quality day and as long as the individual doing the burning has a burn permit and the requirements listed on the burn permit are met.”

Dreschel asked that those planning to burn be considerate of their neighbors “and burn hot and clean as to not create smoke impacts.” 

He also said as the weather starts to warm up, “please make sure your burn pile doesn’t get away from you as you may be responsible for extinguishment and damage costs from your burn pile.”

Still, Pehrson said there are about 10 large slash piles at the site yet to burn and he feared what might come this week.

“This is just the start,” he said.