Agricultural Burning

With the spring backyard burn season ending last week we have been flooded with phone calls about agricultural burning. The big question has been "can I ag burn today even though backyard burning is closed?". We run into a number of issues in our rural areas where people are burning yard debris under the assumption that because they live in the "country" it is agricultural burning so hopefully this blog post will help answer those questions.

Here is the Oregon Department of Agriculture definition for agricultural burning (with hyper link to their website if you want more information):

"Agricultural Burning is the burning of any agriculture waste generated by an agricultural operation that uses, or intends to use, land primarily for the purpose of obtaining a profit by raising, harvesting, and selling crops or raising or selling animals (including poultry) or the products of animal husbandry. Prohibited materials, such as tires, cannot be burned even in an agricultural setting."

So basically to answer the question simply, it is only agricultural burning if you are burning debris from a farming operation that you profit from. Just because you live in the country you are not considered an agricultural burning operation by default, and even if you do operate a farm the material you are burning has to be part of the farming process to be considered agricultural burning. For instance a local hazelnut orchard cannot burn brush clippings from the yard outside of backyard burn season because they aren't burning the debris from the orchard itself, nor can someone with a couple of acres and a horse burn tree limbs under the agricultural burning rules.

So when can you burn your yard debris? Backyard burn season is determined by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and is open twice a year. Spring burn season runs from March 1 to June 15 and fall season starts October 1 and ends December 15th. Based on air quality testing DEQ determines day to day during these times if burning will be allowed, they then pass this on to us to update our open burning hot line (503.992.3242). During the summer months the Washington County Fire Defense Board will typically close all burning, even ag burning, for fire safety reasons. If the weather dries out early or stays dry longer this burn ban can be during the typical backyard burn season so it is important to always call the open burning hot line to find out if you can burn today.