We all can breathe easier with controlled burns behind us

This editorial appears in the Oct. 1, 2009, Yakima Herald-Republic.

Thanks to the U.S. Forest Service, we now have a new twist on an old saying: Where there's smoke, there's more smoke.

Lately the upper Yakima Valley has been awash in smoky air that has caused eyes to water and those suffering from asthma and allergies to take an extra jolt from their inhalers. Late Monday afternoon, in some areas around Gleed and Yakima, smoke blocked out the sun.

The Forest Service says this is a necessary offshoot from its controlled burns in the mountainous areas within the Naches Ranger District. Monday's 2,000-acre burn occurred along Bethel Ridge near Rimrock Lake and apparently started under ideal conditions. However, fickle winds did a 180-degree turn and sent the dense smoke from the burn toward Naches, Gleed and Yakima. At State Fair Park, where the Central Washington State Fair nearly closed down Saturday when an uncontrolled fire broke out in a sawdust pile in the nearby former Boise Cascade site, a thick cloud blotted out nearly half the sky.

In the case of Monday's controlled burn, the cure almost proved as bad as the disease. But the winds that brought the smoke into the lowlands shifted again, blowing the smoke away in the evening.

What is left, of course, is the continued concern that these controlled burns may offer up more dense smoke to the Yakima Valley.

The Forest Service acknowledges that this indeed may happen. But federal officials say it's better to pay this price of discomfort now than face a much more catastrophic fire if no controlled blazes were conducted.

These recent controlled burns have been larger than in the past with the hope they will have a greater impact on reducing the dense build-up of fuel in the forests. Thickets of fir and tangled underbrush, along with fallen limbs and sickly trees, have created a ready source of fire if lightning were to strike or an unattended campfire were to spread its hot embers.

Certainly these precautionary and pre-emptive strikes by the Forest Service make sense. However, we still think the Forest Service needs to do a better job of informing the public about these burns.

Imagine, though, if a private landowner had set a controlled blaze and the winds had shifted, turning the sky dark above the city of Yakima. Howls of protest would undoubtedly be heard and the Yakima Regional Clean Air Agency would be all over the landowner -- like a bear on honey.

So far, though, the agency says the air quality in the Yakima area -- despite the smoky skies -- has been within state standards. Let's hope it stays that way. As important as the controlled burns are to prevent future large-scale fires, it's equally important to preserve the quality of the air we breathe.

* Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Michael Shepard, Bob Crider, Spencer Hatton and Karen Troianello.

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