Program to oversee prescribed burns
Fried sets up training to reduce smoke affecting surrounding communities
— Florida is setting up an advanced training program for people who oversee prescribed burns, with an emphasis on burns in sugar cane fields, in an effort to reduce smoke in surrounding communities.
The state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services also announced new boundary lines in the Everglades Agricultural Area to further separate growing inland communities around Lake Okeechobee from the potential impacts of burning cane fields.
Prescribed, or controlled, burns are intentionally set and are used as a form of land management. In addition to areas such as sugar cane fields, prescribed burning is commonly used in the state’s timber industry.
In a news release, Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried said the new steps will “enhance public safety, reduce smoke and ash impacts for Everglades communities and reduce the risk of wildfires.”
In October, Fried prohibited sugar cane burning at night and before 11 a.m. on foggy mornings, set an 80-acre buffer between wild lands and sugar cane fields for burning on dry, windy days and gave landowners 72 hours, down from 96 hours, to suppress muck fires.
At the time, Fried said a shorter burning season and increased fines for noncompliance were being considered.
One of the steps taken Tuesday sets up a $175 per-student training course, online or in a classroom, for certified prescribed burn managers from public and private agencies and organizations. It is intended to help reduce smoke impacts.
“Certified burners in Florida, because of their additional training, are allowed to burn when others cannot, to burn longer through the day, and are given liability protection as long as they follow the requirements in the law,” the department’s website said.
The first course is slated to be held at the end of September in Brooksville. Additional courses will be offered in Chipley, Tallahassee, Bryceville, Fort Myers, West Palm Beach and Apopka.
State Forester Erin Albury said the certification program will “ensure all prescribed fire applicators are held to the same standard across the state.”
The redrawn boundaries in the EverTALLAHASSEE glades Agricultural Area, which will take effect Jan. 1, are expected to reduce potential smoke impacts in growing communities.
The Sierra Club called Fried’s latest zone plan “ill-defined” and said it will “do little to protect Florida residents living in and around the Glades.”
“The less than detailed changes announced today beg a few questions: Do the new zones, or modified zones, afford Belle Glade, South Bay, Pahokee protection from all burning when wind is blowing their direction — as it has been afforded to Wellington and other communities in Eastern Palm Beach County in the past?” the Sierra Club said in a news release.
Sugar cane farmers typically burn the grassy fields between October and April to remove outer leaves of stalks before harvesting.
Ardis Hammock, a Florida Sugarcane Farmers spokeswoman and operator of Moore Haven-based Frierson Farms, defended prescribed burning practices in a separate news release Tuesday.
“Years of air quality monitoring and data show this program helps keep the Glades farming communities safe, so we can continue to live, work and raise our families here,” Hammock said.