Appendix 10.4 

Kansas Prescribed Fire Emissions 
Appendix 10.4 Kansas Prescribed Fire Emissions 

Kansas Agricultural and Prescribed Burning 

Kansas is a largely agricultural state, with approximately 47.2 million acres of land in 

farm production. The predominant crops grown in Kansas include winter wheat, corn, 

sorghum, soybeans, and hay. In 2009, cattle and calves totaled 6.3 million head; hogs 

totaled 1.74 million head in 2008. As the leading producer of wheat and third largest 

producer of beef cattle, Kansas is one of the most productive agricultural States in the 

United States. Total agricultural production value for livestock and products for the State 

was estimated to be $7.21 billion for 20091. As part of the State’s agricultural operations, 

approximately 5 million acres of land are burned each year. 

An emissions inventory for prescribed and agricultural burning activities in the CENRAP 

states for 2002 was prepared by Sonoma Technology, Inc.2 The following tables and 

charts summarize the annual emissions from burning. 

Table A10.4.1 2002 Kansas Nonpoint Fire Emissions, by Type of Burn and Pollutant 

Burn Type Acres 

Burned PM10 PM2.5 CO NOx SO2 NH3 VOC 

2002 tons 

Rangeland 3,625,270 75,943 52,901 652,250 23,185 10,160 7,487 43,483

Cropland 1,390,520 23,227 22,156 153,313 5,909 777 3,950 11,401

Prescribed 38,106 1,450 1,226 14,424 228 114 143 881

Totals 5,053,896 100,620 76,283 819,987 29,322 11,052 11,579 55,765

Table A10.4.2 2002 Kansas Crop Residue Burning Emissions, by Crop and 

Pollutant 

Crop residue 

type 

Acres 

Burned PM10 PM2.5 CO NOx SO2 NH3 VOC 

2002 tons 

Wheat 1,058,014 17,420 16,610 118,902 4,523 603 3,216 8,194

Hay/Alfalfa 189,085 2,252 2,148 12,701 408 54 290 1,143

Corn 126,956 3,039 2,906 18,902 880 107 373 1,760

Soybeans 9,996 210 200 1,252 34 5 24 154

Other 6,469 306 292 1,557 65 9 46 150
Figure A10.4.1 2002 Acreage Burned in Kansas 

38,106

1,390,520

3,625,270

0

500,000

1,000,000

1,500,000

2,000,000

2,500,000

3,000,000

3,500,000

4,000,000

Prescribed Burning Rangeland Burning Cropland Burning

Acres

Figure A10.4.2 2002 Cropland Burning in Kansas 

1,058,014

189,085

9,996 6,469

126,956

0

200,000

400,000

600,000

800,000

1,000,000

1,200,000

Wheat Hay/Alfalfa Corn Soybeans Other

Acres
Figure A10.4.3 2002 Emissions from Fires in Kansas 

0

100,000

200,000

300,000

400,000

500,000

600,000

700,000

800,000

900,000

PM10 PM2.5 CO Nox SO2 NH3 VOC

Emissions (tons/yr)

Flint Hills Rangeland Burning 

The impacts from agriculture burning are especially a concern in the Flint Hills region of 

Kansas. The approximately 4.1 million acre Flint Hills region is a band of typically flattopped hills in eastern Kansas that extend from Marshall County in the northernmost part 

to Chautauqua County in the southernmost part of the state. The Flint Hills region 

contains some of the last remaining tall grass prairie in the world. Soils in the Flint Hills 

are rich but thin on alternating layers of limestone and shale, and have essentially 

remained unplowed. The dominant grass species found in this region include big 

bluestem (Andropogon gerardii), switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), and Indian grass 

(Sorghastrum nutans)

 3. Other species that are not endemic to Kansas but that have 

become naturalized include Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis) and Japanese brome 

(Bromus japonicus). 

Historically, the grasslands of central North America experienced fire, drought, and 

heavy grazing by bison and other ungulates. Fires were initiated by lightning and by 

Native inhabitants, which influenced the development of fire-tolerant grasses and 

suppressed woody vegetation. Today, ranchers in Kansas continue to use fires to manage 

rangelands, and research conducted by Kansas State University supports these practices. 

The burning cycle mirrors natural burns that maintained the quality of the grasslands 

historically. Fire serves to control undesirable invasive species, and improves the quality 

of forage for cattle production4. 

Wheat Stubble Burning 

Wheat farmers have traditionally burned stubble fields before fall planting in order to 

remove residue for easier planting, while at the same time providing control of some 

disease organisms and weed species 5

. 

The following map, Figure A10.4.4, shows how emissions of particulate matter, the 
predominant haze-related pollutant from fires, vary in relation to geography, particularly 

the Flint Hills region. Note that the source of this data is EPA’s National Emissions 

Inventory, which does not track fine particulates (PM2.5), but rather PM10. As Figure 

A10.4.3 above shows, however, the majority of grass fire particulate emissions are PM2.5. 

Figure A10.4.4 PM10 Emissions from Rangeland and Wheat Stubble Burning in 

Kansas, by County (2002 National Emissions Inventory) 

Prescribed Burning 

As interpreted by EPA for emissions inventory purposes, prescribed burning means 

setting fire to vegetation in order to prevent the buildup of fuel that, if left unburned, 

could lead to dangerous wildfires. Considering the frequency of rangeland burning (three 

out of every five years is average), prescribed burning is not a major source of emissions 

in Kansas. As indicated in Table A10.4.1 above, prescribed burning accounts for only 

0.8% of the total acres burned. 
Discussion of Data 

According to the STI baseline inventory estimates, a total of 5,053,896 acres were burned 

in the State of Kansas in 2002. The largest percentage of acres burned (71.7%) was 

rangeland. Cropland burning is the second largest percentage of burning in Kansas 

(27.5%), and is primarily attributed to residue burning of wheat stubble, with burning of 

alfalfa, corn, and soybean residue making up the balance. Prescribed burning accounts 

for the smallest percentage of total acres burned (0.8%). Heavy rangeland burning occurs 

primarily in eastern Kansas in the Flint Hills region, where as much as 80% of the total 

acreage of rangeland is burned in several counties. Western Kansas accounts for a much 

smaller percentage of rangeland burning. Crop residue burning in continuous wheat is 

primarily an issue in central Kansas. 

Future Emissions from Agricultural Burning 

According to Walt Fick, Associate Professor in the Department of Agronomy at Kansas 

State University, the emissions from rangeland burning in the State of Kansas will likely 

remain constant in the future.6 Significant land use changes are not expected to reduce 

the acreage currently used for cattle grazing and the beef cattle industry is not expected to 

decline in Kansas. 

 

Regulation of Agricultural Open Burning 

Agricultural open burning in Kansas is regulated by Kansas Air Regulation (K.A.R.) 28-

19-648, which exempts open burning for agricultural purposes from other open burning 

regulations so long as certain conditions are met. Such conditions include contacting 

local fire officials if required by the local governing body, contacting local traffic control 

and airport authorities if conditions exists that would create safety hazards, and 

supervising the fire until it is extinguished. The regulation allows for local jurisdictions 

to adopt more restrictive ordinances governing agricultural burning. 

The Kansas State Fire Marshall’s office keeps a database of fire incidents as reported by 

local fire departments. However, prescribed burns in Kansas may or may not be reported 

to the local fire departments, depending on the specific regulations within each township. 

Historical Impacts of Agricultural Burning 

While agricultural burning is beneficial to farming and ranching operations, it also has 

negative impacts that must be addressed. Agricultural burning can present safety 

hazards, contribute to ozone and particulate matter pollution in downwind areas, and 

impair visibility in Class I areas. 

Public safety has been the largest concern of landowners and public officials. This has 

been particularly true for smoke causing visibility impairment on highways and near 

airports. Outreach efforts by the Kansas State University Cooperative Extension 

emphasize proper burn practices that minimize fire danger. These practices include 

burning when wind speeds, cloud cover, relative humidity, and temperature are at 

desirable levels. Landowners are also encouraged to notify neighbors and local fire 

departments before they burn. 
Monitoring evaluations have confirmed that rangeland burning increases the level of air 

pollutants in Kansas, but the levels rarely exceed the federal air quality standards. One 

such exceedance occurred in April 2003. On April 12 and 13, 2003, three monitors in the 

Kansas City ozone monitoring network recorded readings in excess of the federal 8-hour 

ozone standard. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) also 

received numerous complaints from other cities and states as far away as Tennessee 

about high ozone and particulate matter readings attributed to the burning in Kansas 

during this time. 

After receiving the complaints, KDHE contacted Kansas State University (KSU) range 

management researchers and learned that due to severe drought conditions persistent in 

that region, a burn ban had been placed by the Kansas Fire Marshal’s office. Just prior to 

April 10, 2003, a small yet sufficient amount of precipitation was received that allowed 

the local fire officials to temporarily lift the burn ban. This resulted in many fires 

occurring on April 10, 11, and 12. This compressed time schedule for burning, coupled 

with weather conditions that kept smoke and air pollutants from dispersing, caused large 

amounts of air pollutants to be trapped in the lower layers of the atmosphere and 

transported downwind across the Kansas City metro area and eastward into the Tennessee 

Valley. Together, these factors resulted in Kansas City monitors exceeding the ozone 

standard and high readings of particulate matter in monitors across eastern Kansas and 

neighboring states. While the 2003 event was exceptional, burning in the Flint Hills 

continues to pose a concern to downwind areas. 

During the spring of 2006, KDHE conducted a special monitoring project in which 

monitors were placed in the towns of Admire and Dwight, Kansas to measure particulate 

matter and to collect samples for carbon analyses. During the seven week study, the 

monitors did not measure levels of particulate matter that exceeded the federal 24-hour 

average of 150 μg/m3. However, there were four recorded short-term spikes in the hourly 

data during high burn days, with particulate matter levels reaching over 850 μg/m3 during 

one of the recorded episodes. The carbon analyses resulted in high organic carbon to 

elemental carbon ratios, which indicated that the majority of carbon sampled originated 

from vegetation fires7. 

Visibility Impacts at Class I Areas 

The impact of planned burning to visibility at Class I areas was evaluated by Sonoma 

Technology, Inc. during the development of both the planned burning emissions 

inventory and the causes of haze assessment for the CENRAP region. To view these 

documents in their entirety visit http://www.kdheks.gov/bar/index.html

The July 30, 2004 study conducted as part of the planned burning inventory analyzed 

ambient speciated PM2.5 data from the IMPROVE network at two Class I areas (Caney 

Creek and Upper Buffalo Wilderness Areas) to determine which chemical compositions 

characterize prescribed burning activity. The study found that levels of elemental carbon 

and non-soil potassium were elevated on days during or after agricultural burning in the 

area. However, the contribution of elemental carbon, the primary marker of smoke, is a 
small part of the PM2.5 mass. While elemental carbon has relatively high extinction 

efficiency, the mass concentrations are small and do not contribute significantly to light 

extinction. Ammonium sulfate is typically the largest contributor to light extinction and 

does not tend to originate from burns.2 

Figure A10.4.5 Species Contributing to Light Extinction at Hercules-Glades 

Wilderness Area 

Figure A10.4.6 Back Trajectory Map for Hercules-Glades for April 12, 2003 

As part of the causes of haze assessment completed August 31, 2005, STI assessed the 

aerosol components that contribute to poor visibility in the CENRAP region. The study 

found that fires infrequently contribute to visibility impairment observed on the 20% 

worst days. The receptor modeling tool Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) was used to 

KS fires – April 12, 2003 
establish factors to characterize ambient data. These factors were inferred to represent 

specific source types. Data analyzed at Hercules-Glades on two days when the biomass 

burning factor was highest (April 12, 2003 and May 9, 2003) showed the factor only 

accounted for 7% of the median mass, and 6% of the mass on the worst visibility days. 

The study concluded that the biomass burning factor was substantially less important to 

visibility than coal burning and other factors.8 

Outreach and Mitigation Efforts 

In the fall of 2003, KDHE staff presented information regarding the effects of the Flint 

Hills burning on ozone levels to agricultural representatives at a conference at Kansas 

State University. KSU range management researchers, KSU Research and Extension, the 

Kansas Department of Agriculture, the Kansas Livestock Association, and other 

agricultural representatives were all present at the meeting. With the help of the 

organizations present, KDHE launched a public outreach campaign to address impacts 

from fires. KDHE provided information prior to the burn season to local fire 

departments, the Kansas Livestock Association, and the Kansas Farm Bureau. In 

addition, the KSU Media Department sent out news releases. Following the outreach 

efforts in 2004, KDHE and EPA Region 7 have continued to meet with the parties 

mentioned above on an annual basis to address burning impacts. 

Research and Model Development 

The National Weather Service (NWS) office issues a rangeland fire danger index for six 

regions across the State of Kansas and is updated automatically as weather conditions 

change. The danger index ranges from low, moderate, high, very high, to extreme and is 

determined by temperature, humidity, and wind speed. In addition to the fire danger 

index, NWS provides a fire weather planning forecast and fuel moisture data, and an 

experimental weather activity planner to assist landowners in planning burns. 

EPA Region 7 is working on a customized version of the BlueSky RAINS model for the 

State of Kansas. Blue Sky RAINS is a web-based information system to help manage 

prescribed and agricultural burning. The model merges the technology of BlueSky, 

developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Rapid Access Information 

System (RAINS) developed by EPA Region 10. BlueSky estimates the cumulative 

impacts of smoke from prescribed, wildland, and agricultural burning. RAINS uses 

geographical information system (GIS) technology to provide an internet mapping 

service. The combination of these two applications provides land managers with the 

ability to analyze potential smoke impacts from regional burning activities. County 

extension officials in two counties used the model on a trial basis during the burning 

season of 2006. Efforts to expand the use of the model to other counties in the state are 

underway for 2007. 

Kansas State University is performing a study to spatially and temporally map seasonal 

burning of the Flint Hills. The study is being sponsored by EPA Region 6 and will be led 

by Douglas Goodwin, a professor in the KSU Geography Department. Maps of the Flint 

Hills annual burning for 2001-2006 will be prepared using remote sensing data from the 

Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument. MODIS data was 

selected as appropriate for this study because of the large coverage, high temporal 
frequency, and low cost. MODIS data will be obtained, free of charge, from NASA for 

each of days of the burning season (March–June) for the project years 2001-2006. 

Remote sensing and GIS analyses will be used to produce weekly maps and composite 

maps of burned areas for each of the years. The study will also provide tabulated values 

of total acreage burned, and the dates of burning. This study will be useful for smoke 

management efforts in the future because it will aid the development of improved 

emissions inventory from Flint Hills burning. 

Smoke Management Initiative 

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) is developing the Kansas 

Smoke Management Initiative, a comprehensive plan to address the negative impacts of 

open burning in the state. The Kansas Smoke Management Initiative is an effort to 

coordinate with a variety of partners to address all types of open burning in the state 

including rangeland, cropland, residential, and commercial/industrial burning. The goals 

of the Smoke Management Initiative are outlined below. 

While the Kansas Department of Health and Environment recognizes the importance of 

fire as a range management tool, our goal is for landowners to manage burning in a way 

that reduces the impacts of smoke. KDHE is working towards developing a better 

understanding of the impact of rangeland burning on air quality by improving the 

emissions inventory, and performing ambient air monitoring in the vicinity of heavy 

burning activity. KDHE is partnering with the Center for Disease Control to study the 

health impacts of burning. KDHE will also coordinate with the agricultural community 

to develop best management practices (BMPs) to reduce the smoke impacts and support 

an expanded time window for burning. The Department will also support the 

development of tools that ranchers and local officials can use to determine proper burning 

conditions. Finally, the department is reviewing the possibility of changing the State’s 

regulations to require local governments to address burning in their local ordinances. 

The state will also address crop residue burning and will work with the agricultural 

community to set a goal to reduce the acreage of croplands burned each year and to 

develop outreach materials outlining possible incentives not to burn, and alternatives to 

burning. 

In addition to addressing agricultural burning in the State, KDHE has set a goal to 

eventually eliminate all residential burning of household trash and yard wastes in the 

state. The short-term objective will focus on the elimination of open burning of 

household wastes within municipalities. Outreach materials will be developed and 

distributed through local agencies to educate the public on the health impacts of 

residential trash burning. 

A mid-term objective will focus on the elimination of the burning of yard waste in 

municipalities. This will entail developing and promoting incentives and alternatives to 

burning such as mulching, composting, and establishing drop-off centers. Finally, a longterm objective will focus on the elimination of household trash and yard waste burning in 

rural areas. 
Each of these efforts to reduce residential burning will require coordination with the 

Bureau of Waste Management (BWM). The BWM is responsible for approving solid 

waste management plans which are submitted every 5 years. These plans could 

incorporate provisions to develop the infrastructure needed to provide the services or 

alternatives necessary to reduce open burning. 

Lastly, the Initiative will address the issue of commercial and industrial open burning 

which is prohibited in the State of Kansas. Commercial and industrial open burning 

persists in some cases because it is an inexpensive and convenient means of disposal. 

The existing regulations are adequate to regulate burning. However, more effort is 

needed to educate business owners and to enforce the current regulations. 

Addressing smoke management in Kansas will be an ongoing effort that will require the 

support of many groups including the agricultural community, local fire and police 

officials, and local government officials. KDHE will pursue a Memorandum of 

Understanding with these groups by March of 2008. These partnerships will help guide 

the process and ensure that the resulting Smoke Management Initiative meets the needs 

of the communities impacted by burning. The Initiative will not only provide benefits of 

improved health and air quality in Kansas communities, it will support the regional 

efforts to reduce visibility impairment in Class I areas. 
References 

1. U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service. Kansas 

Farm Facts 2009. Kansas Field Office. 2009. 

2. Sonoma Technology, Inc. Research and Development of Planned Burning 

Emission Inventories for the Central States Regional Air Planning Association. 

July 30, 2004. 

3. Ricketts, T., Dinerstein, E., and Olson, D. Terrestrial Ecoregions of North 

America: A Conservation Assessment. Washington DC: Island Press. 1999. 

4. Owensby, C. et al. 50 Years of Range Research Revisited. Kansas State 

University Cooperative Extension Service. 1995. 

5. Kansas State University Extension Agronomy. Agronomy e-Update No. 40. July 

12, 2006. http://www.agronomy.kstate.edu/DesktopModules/ViewDocument.aspx?DocumentID=1538

6. Fick, Walt. Associate Professor, Department of Agronomy, Kansas State 

University. Personal Communication. March 15, 2007. 

7. Kansas Department of Health and Environment Bureau of Air and Radiation. 

Ambient Air Monitoring Project: Prairie Burning in the Flint Hills, Kansas. 

2007. 

8. Sonoma Technology, Inc. Analyses of the Causes of Haze for the Central States 

(Phase II). August 31, 2005.