Department of Agriculture officials: Moisture halts field burning this week

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the amount of burning allowed by agriculture officials along with the wind direction. A quote from John Byers was also corrected.

Update 7 p.m. Aug. 7

Thanks to a combination of moisture and unfavorable winds, farmers will not conduct field burning this week, according to John Byers, smoke and field burning program manager for the Oregon Department of Agriculture. 

Farmers have burned a total of 4,758 acres — about one-third of the allotted acreage — to date this year. 

Original story 

If you spotted thick smoke clouds Wednesday afternoon east of Salem, odds are you were looking at a field burning.  

Starting at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, agriculture officials allowed burning of about 1,000 acres of numerous fields north of Silver Falls Highway and south of Silverton, according to John Byers, smoke and field burning program manager for the Oregon Department of Agriculture. 

Wednesday's weather and slow-moving southwesterly winds were conducive to route the smoke over the Cascades, Byers said. 

"The goal is to allow producers to burn and protect public from smoke impact," he said.

In 2009, the Legislature capped field burning to 15,000 acres restricted to a small area near Silverton, where steep terrain and certain types of seed make alternatives difficult.

Last year, farmers burned 13,787 acres; 3,600 acres have been burned so far this year.

State Fire Marshal bans field burning when two of three conditions exist: Temperature over 95 degrees, humidity of 30 percent or less, or winds of 15 miles per hour or greater, Byers said.

Field burning season typically runs until farmers reach the burn limit or around the first week of October when winter rains begin. 

Crews are scheduled to work until around 5 p.m. 

Virginia Barreda is the Breaking News Reporter with the Statesman Journal. She can be reached at 53-399-6657 or at vbarreda@statesmanjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at @vbarreda2. 

Statesman Journal reporter Tracy Lowe contributed to this report.