10.6.18 The battle between wheat farmers wanting to maintain fire as a tool and air activists wanting to extinguish the practice, was hard fought nearly 20 years ago. Today, burning wheat stubble in Eastern Washington remains an alternative, but it is done with nary a complaint over smoke, thanks to the Washington Department of Ecology’s agricultural burning program. Join Scott Yates, director of communications and producer relations for the Washington Grain Commission, as he talks with Ecology burn program supervisor Kary Peterson, about the relationship between wild fires and ag burning, the impact of baling wheat straw on a widespread basis and reasons behind the increase in orchard pile burning with a simultaneous decline in wheat stubble burning. All that and more in episode 98 entitled: Ag Burning: A Program That Works. Subscribe to Wheat All About It on Stitcher, Overcast, Pocket Cast, Player FM and other podcast apps and never miss an episode. For those with iPhones: touch the purple podcast icon, and type “Wheat All About It” in the finder to listen quickly!
