Hmm. I wonder if the source of your olfactory disturbance was other than field burning. I drove from Aurora down to Brownsville today to pick up a load of firewood and press 30 gallons of apple cider (mmm!). No signs of field burning in the usual spots, though I'll admit that at certain times in the past the valley has looked a bit like Mordor. As I recall, there are some nominally valid reasons for field burning (sterilizing the soil?). Any farmers on this blog?

And, dammit Jack, that stupid hill in Washington keeps kicking out particulates as well! The nerve of that thing. I tell ya. As an asthma sufferer, I am outraged.

In all seriousness, though, let's not get too tworked about farmers when folks like me have to live downwind of those no-income-tax-lovin commuters from the 'Couv who fill I-5 every AM and PM. If the Interstate Max is making some kind of difference in that department, I aint seeing it.

BTW good to see the blog back in action. Especially with 18 days left before the election.

At least they try to time it to a day before it's going to rain. But the line the state gives out about not burning when the wind's blowing toward Potrland is bunk.

Yep, I'm almost a farmer - I know a lot of farmers who live in my rural county. The problem stems from ramping allowable burn days down to just a few days. Thanks, urbanites! For the math challenged, look at it this way: if you have ten cords of wood brush to burn, would it be better to do one cord a week, or do all ten in one day?

But, like the great poster below who noted that traffic and dear old Mt. St. Helens must be putting at least as much stuff into the air, I must note that the recent smoke does not come from farmers attempting to clean their fields.

I saw smoke as I drove back from Bend on Friday. It wasn't coming from fields. It was coming from brush piles on hobby farms just outside of Salem. I agree the smell from burning brush and stubble is bad -- but this time it hasn't been from farmers.

No, I am quite familiar (unfortunately) with the smell of burning grass, as opposed to other burnables. Today it was grass.

And excuse me, but in my mind the number of days on which field burning should be permitted is zero, if the wind is blowing toward densely populated areas.

The number of acres that are allowed to be burned is way less than it used to be. Whatever the farmers are doing with the fields that they used to burn but don't any more -- they should do that with all of them.

In the meantime, it would be great if someone could get the list of all the burners. That would make an interesting blog post.

I don't remember the particulars of the history of field burning legislation well enough to recount, but it is a great little study in democracy in action and how it is upended at the legislative level, your special interest legislature at work. Story from the 70s if I recall, which I studied in the 80s when suffering those ghastly field burns which would ruin otherwise beautiful mid-Willamette Valley summer days, and preciously few enough they already were.

Research it sometime and you might be horrified.

After the highway pile-up a couple of years later (circa 1988?), legislation got a lot tougher. Field burning is pretty limited now.

The same soil benefit could be accomplished otherwise, but at a bit more trouble & expense.

Oregon I think is No. 1 grass-seed growing capital. And most of the grass seed is used for golf courses.

I think that the farmers should only be allowed to burn when the winds blow towards Portland. This will allow them to give a little back on the dense population that creates legislation to slowly kill one farm at a time.

If you don't like it, go back to California. Oregon was a farming state long before the silicon rush or the “creative” charge.

You could do with some history lessons, JimmyZ. The story of Oregonians' fight against field burning (a practice started in 1948 and brought to loggerheads -- 'scuse the pun -- in 1988) has been a long & very Oregon one. And the industries so regulated have continued to thrive.

Oh, Come on, Jack. I live right down here in the middle of it and it doesn't bother me a bit, Never has.

Where did you ever get the idea that the rest of Oregon was required to live their lives in such a way as to never sully your olfactory senses?

Sally is right, the Willamette Valley is the #1 producer of grass seed in the world and I believe that most of the grass seed is used for golf courses. So what?

She is also right that it would be "a bit more trouble & expense" to use other methods. The problem here is that it would be "more trouble and expense" for the farmer and not those of you complaining.

You should all get together and pool your money to pay farmers not to burn. That would put the onus where it belongs, on those who think they have the right not to be offended, inconvenienced or reminded that they are not the only ones that live here.

It's not just an aesthetic question. It's a health issue. The health of a million people outweighs the economic convenience of a handful of farmers. It's called civilized society. Look into it.