I'm somewhat confused how smoke from field burning south of Portland is fouling the city's air when the wind is currently a gusty 15-20 mph coming from the east. The smoke is more likely from the fires raging east of the Cascades getting funneled to us through the Columbia River Gorge.

Hmmmm. You may be right. We'll have to wait for a definitive answer.

It smells like grass, though -- not wood. Are these eastern Oregon fires grass fires?

What will youo be doing? Drinking wine in your backyard is my guess... any new rose's to try out? I have been enjoying the $4.99 bottles found at whole foods lately. Almost as cheap as the chuck! (their sauvignon blanc is actually not bad)

Have a good weekend, Jack, we know you need a break after the shenanigans this week.

Now I didn't mean for you take back all the mean things, just the part about the smoke coming from field burning today.

I never mind the smell. It puts me in a early 1960s nostaligic mood about hot mornings picking evergreens (blackberries), cashing in the tickets (30 cents a crate as I recall), and going to the county (North Marion) fair with a girl friend. But such redolence is probably only available to native Oregonians who grew up in the Willamette Valley at a certain time.

The smoke around here used to be a lot worse. But in those days it affected far fewer people, because the place was less densely populated.

If we're giving up our elbow room and views in Portland in order to save farmland, maybe those grass guys should give our lungs a break in exchange.

But again, today it might be God who's wrecking our air quality.

For many years the DEQ managed the Grass Field Smoke to keep it from the Port metro area and left the rest of the Valley residents to suck it up.

But then, if you couldn't see a golf ball for all the smoke then we wouldn't need the grass seed.

Somehow, the smoke is Neil G's fault. He was molesting someone, knocked over a lantern, started a grass fire et voila. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

I don't know... looking at the fire map, I don't see an obvious culprit.

I guess those fires east of Walla Walla could be causing it. There are still fires in central Oregon (but that would involve the smoke moving first north to the Gorge, then west - possible but how probable?) and the Mt. Hood Complex is, I believe, still alive. But I wouldn't rule out fieldburning yet. It could be anything.

Agreed.

The timing -- the Friday of the holiday weekend -- looks suspiciously like a planned burn. If there's any messy publicity, it's on Friday night or Saturday morning of the long weekend. Maybe by Tuesday everyone will forget it happened.

Not if you have asthma.

I lived in and around California Great Central Valley towns for a couple of years. Newsmedia(prompted by the bureaucrats I presume) had the courtesty to announce "agricultural burn days".

I got it right for once. Here's a link to KATU story explaining the smoke from fires east of Portland:
http://www.katu.com/stories/88849.html

Nice to see you're getting some features up again - like the usually great photos heading up the opening page!

On the smoke - as noted above, it isn't field-burning; it's wildfire. But it does raise the question: What Would Jeff Kropf Do?

Pardon the weird color scheme on the comments page. I'm working on the main page layout right now. When I get it right, I'll make this much prettier.

Oh, boo hoo hoo, poor babies getting smoke in your eyes.

Just be thankful you don't live in Montana where most of the state is burning up right now.....

Maybe you'd prefer all of the pesticides that would be needed to compensate for the field burning if it were prohibited?

Jack you should still be bitching about the bureaucrats, just different ones than you started on.

I think the City of Portland should pass an ordinance that requires all those pesky grass farmers to start growing organic salad vegetables and/or oil seed crops that we can turn into biodiesel. If they refuse, we can have Metro increase their jurisdiction and rezone their asses. Besides, grass seed just serves the needs of the subsidized petroleum freeway dependent suburban sprawl euphemistically referred to as the "American Dream". Once the oil runs out, we quit wasting precious arable land and fertilizer on the agricultural equivalent of a Barbie Doll. Sure, Barbie Doll Grass looks great, but you can't eat it.