Field burning halted during Olympic Trials; local activists cry foul

Farmers burn fields every summer in Lane County. Protesters want the practice to stop.

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Story Published: Jul 6, 2008 at 9:29 PM PST

By Elissa Harrington

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EUGENE, Ore. - Have tourists and athletes in town for the Olympic Trials been getting better treatment than local residents?

"My lungs are just as valuable as the athlete's," said local resident Laurel Henry.

Henry suffers from asthma. She's just one of several activists protesting outside the Olympic Trial gates Sunday. They want field burning banned.

"I just feel my lungs collapse," she said. "It's hard to breathe and it's painful. It was bad enough with the fires from California but I think now we're really gonna feel it."

Local farmers agreed to suspend the practice during the Olympic Trial games to provide athletes with clean air.

"But what about the rest of us who live here 365 days of the year?" said activist Ellen Singer. "We have to breathe the air too."

Meanwhile, farmers said field burning is necessary to clear crops of pests and weeds. Over the years they have cut down on the practice substantially and do have the public's health in mind, farmers said.

"On a day like today they wouldn't have any field burning because of the wind," said Troy Rodakowski, the manager of Pacific Seed Production. "They tend to restrict it to a point where it's not going to cause a health concern."

And if a ban does go through?

"Potentially, it could put a lot of people out of business," Rodakowski said.

Governor Ted Kulongoski has asked the legislature to begin cut backs on field burning in 2009 and to eliminate the practice by 2016.

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