DOE burning regulations douse Palouse mommoth burn plan

Palouse artist Thad Froio stands next to his giant wooden mammoth. Froio says he may not burn the mammoth as originally intended.

The anticipated burning of the wooden mammoth in downtown Palouse has hit an obstacle.

Artist Thad Froio received a phone call from the state Department of Ecology (DOE) last week and was informed it was illegal to burn anything but natural, unprocessed vegetation in the state of Washington.

Froio said DOE official Kary Peterson said he received a photocopy of the May 5 Gazette article on the mammoth titled “Burning the Behemoth” on his desk.

Froio suspects someone in Palouse has been feeding the DOE information as he has been building his mammoth.

The 15-foot-tall wooden structure, which features a life-size trunk, was scheduled to go up in flames in front of hundreds of people in June to draw publicity to the town’s community center project.

The mammoth skeleton stands on the future site of the center, which has been the object of five years of fundraising in Palouse. Construction for the building is set to begin in August.

In an interview with the Gazette, Peterson said the photocopy arrived on his desk anonymously. Peterson is the supervisor for the DOE’s Agricultural and Outdoor Burn Unit for the eastern region of the state.

“I really hate to be the bearer of bad news or however you would like to put it. But I saw this article and I thought, ‘I better get a hold of Thad and let him know what the rules are,’” Peterson said.

State law says it is illegal to burn anything but natural, unprocessed vegetation in the state and that includes construction debris. The material Froio and his fellow artists have used to build the behemoth falls under the construction debris category.

The structure is made from discarded lumber from a renovation project above the Palouse Tavern. The wood has metal nails within it but has not been cured with chemicals, Froio told the Gazette.

Breaking the state burning regulations can be penalized with a monetary fine, Peterson said. Department investigators rate the offense on a penalty matrix, so the fine for each situation can be different.

However, his unit uses fines as a last resort Peterson added. He pointed out they try to do as much education as possible before going that far.

“It’s not our goal to fine. It’s our goal to get them to accept and work with the rules,” Peterson said.

Palouse Fire Chief Mike Bagott said he gave Thad his full approval for the project and was surprised to hear the DOE had stepped in.

“It’s kind of the old adage of the few apples ruining the whole batch,” he added. “It would have been a neat thing for the community to do that.”

The actual burning would likely produce very little smoke and posed little risk as a fire hazard because the location was far enough from the surrounding buildings, Bagott said.

“I told Thad all along from a fire protection standpoint we don’t see a problem with it. There’s really little risk it would have presented there with the distance he has from buildings,” Bagott said.

The city of Palouse has a year-round no-burn policy. However, the city also offers a special “religious or recreation” burn permit for free. City clerk Ann Thompson said the permits also mandate that the materials used for the burning must be “ virgin wood.”

“Virgin wood is the term, meaning, basically, straight out of the woods, untouched,” Thompson said.