Growers support field burning
By KATHY MISKILL
OlhEmnM
On a sunny day northwest of
Eugene, a seven-acre field of
dry straw is doused with
propane gas The burning
begins, sending billows of dirty
yellow smoke above the heads
of concerned onlookers
The field burning was part of
the First Annual Smoke Fes
tival, held Saturday in Al
vadore, Oregon
Field burning is the crucial
first stage of a grass-seed crop
cycle because the “shock of
burning ’ stimulates next
year's crop, according to Ruby
Ringsdorf, who has been har
vesting grass seed for 25
years
Ringsdorf is a member of
Lane County Women for
Agriculture, a group that
sponsored the field-burning
event in cooperation with
First stage critical to seed crop
Drew Farms Inc., the Depart
ment of Environmental Quali
ty, the Oregon Seed Council
and Oregon State University's
crop science department
The purpose of the festival
was to show the complexity of
the seed-crop cycle and to
stress the economic impor
tance of this crop to the Wil
lamette Valley, says Dave Nel
son of the Oregon Seed
Council
The valley supplies two
thirds of the nation's grass
seed and yields 350 to 400
million pounds annually, Nel
son says
Eighty percent of the grass
seed is used for pasture ren
ovation, he says The remain
ing 20 percent is used for
aesthetic grasses’’ such as
lawns and golf courses
However, OSU’s crop
science researchers and
DEQ's Research Advisory
Committee are looking for al
ternatives to field burning
"A satisfactory alternative
would have an advantage to
all,” says Harold Youngberg, a
professor of crop science
One option still under
evaluation is known as the
"crew-cutting” method The
“crew-cutting” device cuts
through rows of grass seed,
leaving the straw by-product
behind
Youngberg says straw
utilization is an important part
of any field-burning alterna
tive The straw can be used for
livestock ration, as well as
decorative wall-paneling man
ufactured by an Albany firm
Because the DEO has com
plete authority over field burn
ing, it is the "most closely
regulated process” of seed
harvesting, Nelson says.
A grass-seed grower must
first register the number of
acres intended for burning
with the DEQ However,
weather conditions are the ul
timate factor in determining
the actual number of acres to
be burned
DEQ requires any crop
grower who burns fields to
monitor a VHF radio channel
that provides information on
authorized burning times and
wind speed and direction.
Unfavorable weather condi
tions this year have put grass
seed growers behind schedule
for burning
"In past years I've had more
(acres) burned," says Jim
Drew, owner of Drew Farms
"It’s been a strange year all
around ”
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University charges
remedial writing fee
Remedial writing courses —
Writing 040 Writing 049 and
Writing 199 — will cost students
$93 on top of tuition, beginning
this fall
The courses, which were
eliminated from the English
department curriculum and
made part of the Continuation
Center, still will be coordinated
by the English department, says
English prof Thelma Green
field
Greenfield who this spring
was acting head of the English
department, initiated the move
to put remedial writing courses
on a self-support basis after she
was confronted with the prob
lem of how to pay for 288
lower-level writing sections
when the budget contained
funding for only 196
Writing professors ' were
completely in accord" about
charging extra for remedial
courses and moving them to the
Continuation Center, Greenfield
says, partly because the
remedial courses use about
one-sixth of the department's
resources
"It is a rather good thing for
us to be out of the business of
remedial courses,” she says
Greenfield says she does re
gret that the decision had to be
made tor financial instead of
academic reasons, but she says
removing remedial courses
from the English department
was "in the wind anyway "
To avoid the new charge,
students must qualify for Writing
121 Writing 120 — Preparatory
Composition — has been
changed to Writing 049 and is
one of the courses subiect to
the fee
However, Greenfield says
students can get into Writing
121 any way they want to" —
including retaking the Test of
Standard Written English that
determines writing placement
or testing out of Writing 120
The new charge — $31 per
credit hour — does not seem to
be discouraging freshmen from
enrolling in the lower-level
courses, she says Early regis
tration figures show enrollment
is "going pretty well "
The fee probably will come as
more of a surprise to returning
students who have not already
completed their writing require
ment
"We hate to ask students to
face the prospect of paying
more for their education,” she
says
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