The USEPA devotes a significant website to backyard burning at http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/muncpl/backyard/ with links to several educational resources.
Bill Carter
Water Quality Monitoring & Assessment MC
165 Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
P.O. Box 13087
Austin, TX 78711-3087
Phone: 512-239-6771
Fax: 512-239-4410
[email protected]
Backyard Burning
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This issue of backyard burning becomes more problematic when one moves into outer suburban/semi rural environments and perhaps needs to be handled somewhat differently especially in areas where there is high fire risk. Many of these outer urban properties (including the one I own) adjoin state forest, national park or urban bushland. Fire risk management is as an important environmental as many other issues which confront us here in Australia, especially in outer urban areas where loss of life and property is an extreme risk. Lessening fuel load can have real impact on both the number of fires and the intensity of them when they occur. This contributes significantly to both environmental damage and air quality over time, and without putting too finer point on it, human life and safety. I know seasonal controlled burning presents many contentious issues, but human life and safety cannot be discounted in the discussion. Those of us who live with both the beauty of the bush, and its fury, need to considered as part of a holistic conversation about fuel load reduction.
Regards
Peta Wellstead
Perth, Western Australia