In an effort to review the current open burning regulations in Saline County, a group of citizens along with firefighters and other personnel have been meeting with Saline County Emergency Management to improve the prescribed burning process including burn permits. The next steps in the process are to solicit information, ideas, and opinions from the whole community on the current regulations and find ways to improve the system that is in place.
Prescribed burning is conducted to meet specific land management objectives such as increased desirable vegetation, improved grazing distribution, compliance with CRP contract requirements, preparations for seed beds, and wildfire threat reduction. Thousands of acres of grassland are burned each year in Saline County for many of these purposes. With that said, grass fires also represent 55% of all fires in Saline County.
The overall mission of this project is to review and recommend changes to the current Saline County burning regulations. The main objectives are to make controlled burning safer in our county and the second is to ensure that the agricultural communities can accomplish their burning inside the various deadlines that are dictated by nature and governmental agencies. Saline County has varying needs for land management when it comes to prescribed fire and any suggested changes in regulations will need to suit the entire county.
A survey has been launched on the homepage of the Saline County website www.saline.org . We encourage land owners, farmers, firefighters, and citizens to provide feedback on 10 questions ranging from suggested changes to proposed resources. The survey will be open until June 5th. We appreciate any information, feedback, ideas, and opinions that would help improve the current system and accomplish the goals as mentioned.
Questions on this survey can be directed to Saline County Emergency Management 826-6511]
