Item 2: Ordinance on West Eugene Wetlands Burn Ban Exemption

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manufacturing facilities, and any burns done on those sites would accommodate any concerns regarding potential smoke impacts for potentially affected facilities. Burns would only be conducted with prevailing winds that carry the smoke away from these facilities, and at a time when the manufacturing process is not in operation andair intake systems are not turned on. 4. Reasons for When, How Often, and Where Burning Will Occur Controlled ecological burns will be conducted in the late summer or early fall. This is the time of year that the herbaceous vegetation is dormant and is not damaged by fire. Burns will occur only on days when the weather conditions (temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed) provide the proper window to conduct a safe burn. Generally controlled ecological burns are conducted after the first fall rains have reduced regional fire hazards somewhat but fine fuels such as grasses are still brown and dormant. Research to date indicates that the optimal burn frequency for meeting site ecological goals is once every three to six years. Thus, most of the sites will only be burned once during the next five year period. The areas selected for ecological burning include the highest quality native prairie remnants under protective management. These are typically the sites that will benefit most from burning. Many of these prairie sites contain endangered plant species which have also been shown to benefit from such burns. 5. Description of Burning Procedures Controlled ecological burns will be conducted by trained personnel from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), The Nature Conservancy, City of Eugene Fire Department, trained Parks and Open Space Division staff, contract crews, and other partner fire protection agencies (e.g., Oregon Department of Forestry). The BLM has been involved with Willamette Valley controlled ecological burning since 1988. Agencies for whom the BLM has provided controlled ecological burning services include The Nature Conservancy, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Fern Ridge and Dorena reservoirs and adjacent lands), US Fish and Wildlife Service (Finley National Wildlife Refuge), City of Eugene and Lane County.The Nature Conservancy and City controlled burns in west Eugene in 2004. Beginning in 2008, the City of Eugene Fire Department (EFD) began serving as the lead agency for burns on City-owned land. This allows EFD the additional benefit of using controlled burns as valuable wild land fire fighter training opportunities for staff. The State of Oregon has delegated to the Lane Regional Air Pollution Authority (LRAPA) the authority for management of air quality within the Eugene-Springfield area. In order to conduct controlled ecological burns,partners must submit a permit application to LRAPA that includes all of the planned burn sites for the next year. LRAPA reviews the application and issues a special permit. In addition, both LRAPA and the Oregon Department of Agriculture are involved in determining whether burning can be conducted on a given day and site, based on the impact that expected weather conditions will have on smoke dispersal.