Smoke in the Great Plains, USA: an increasing phenomenon with potential policy and health implications

Heath D Starns,Elijah G Schnitzler,John R Weir,Robert J Agnew,Douglas R Tolleson

doi:10.1186/s42408-020-00073-1

Abstract

In recent decades, as wildland fire occurrence has increased in the United States, concern about the emissions produced by wildland fires has increased as well. This growing concern is evidenced by an increase in scientific articles investigating effects of wildland smoke on public health, and ongoing research projects assessing wildland smoke hazards. We reviewed primary literature evaluating wildland smoke in the United States and determined that the vast majority of available literature addresses the northwestern and southeastern US. We discovered that a significant knowledge gap exists for the Great Plains, a region where wildfire and prescribed fire occur frequently. In this region, wildfire and prescribed fire are important economically, ecologically, and culturally. Given the paucity of data regarding emissions from Great Plains fuels and the increase in fire occurrence in the region, we suggest that more active research is needed to fill this gap.

Highlights

Fire is an evolutionary driver of rangelands worldwide and is essential to the persistence of many terrestrial ecosystems (Wright and Bailey 1982; Axelrod 1985; Bond et al 2005)
Local and regional air quality studies describing the effects of prescribed fires in the Great Plains have focused on modeling (Baker et al 2016; Liu et al 2017, 2018) using emissions factors developed outside of the Great plains
Considering the geographic scale of the Great Plains and the dependence upon fire to maintain and restore grasslands within the region, emissions from Great Plains fuels are likely to become a significant driver of policy in the future

Summary

Introduction

Fire is an evolutionary driver of rangelands worldwide and is essential to the persistence of many terrestrial ecosystems (Wright and Bailey 1982; Axelrod 1985; Bond et al 2005). Smoke from wildland fires can cause dangerous conditions on roadways and near airports and other travel corridors by obstructing vision (Weir 2009), but there is considerable concern regarding the release of carbon into the atmosphere (Langmann et al 2009) and the impacts of smoke on air quality (Hyde et al 2017) These concerns are of particular importance to managers of public and private lands who use fire (managed wildfire and prescribed fire) as part of a land stewardship strategy, because regulations affecting smoke have potential to hinder the use of fire. In this context, local and regional air quality studies describing the effects of prescribed fires in the Great Plains have focused on modeling (Baker et al 2016; Liu et al 2017, 2018) using emissions factors developed outside of the Great plains. Fires reported on by Whitehill et al (2019) were executed in native tallgrass prairie, the plots

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