Agricultural News
Statewide Burn Ban Allows For Extreme Hardship Exceptions, State Ag Secretary Says
Fri, 07 Sep 2012 14:03:01 CDT
Despite recent rains, the statewide ban on outdoor burning is still in effect in all 77 counties. Oklahoma Secretary of Agriculture Jim Reese says the ban will continue until the state experiences significant rainfall.
Speaking on the "Insiders," a new program airing for the first time on the Radio Oklahoma Network this weekend, Reese did say that there are some exceptions being granted to the burn ban in cases of extreme hardship. He said good examples would be a welding company that needed to make repairs in the field somewhere, or a controlled burn that needed to be made for agricultural purposes.
Reese said the Forestry Department reviews applications for exemptions from the burn ban on a case-by-case basis.
"That exception, you have to request it from the state forester through an application. You can't just go burn and say you had a hardship. You have to get approval to do it before you can do it."
He said that approval for exemptions begins with getting a form off of the Forestry Department's website forestry.ok.gov. The form is AG2012-02. For agricultural burns, the form is submitted to the local fire chief who must approve it before the burn can take place.
Reese said that rural residents who burn trash are technically not allowed to burn trash anytime, not just during the burn ban. He said they can burn debris on occasion, but burning of trash is not allowed. During the current burn ban, even debris burning is not allowed and rural residents must make other arrangements if they need to dispose of debris during the ban.
Reese said that recent rains have not been sufficient to allow for withdrawing the burn ban.
"Even if people got an inch, an inch-and-a-half, the ground just sucked that up and it's gone. So we are still in extreme drought over a very large part of the state. Everybody would like the burn ban to be lifted, but it's still very dangerous."
You can hear Jim Reese's full conversation with "Insiders" hosts Scott Mitchell and Rita Aragon by clicking on the LISTEN BAR below.
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