A Burning Question

Cidu Bill on Nov 4th 2009

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Is there anyplace in the United States where burning leaves is still legal?

Filed in Bill Bickel, Cleats, comic strips, comics, humor | 25 responses so far

25 Responses to “A Burning Question”

  1. RobynS8971 Nov 4th 2009 at 05:49 pm 1

    Come to NC, it smells wonderful this time of year, you can burn anything “not man-made” - so no cardboard, garbage, newspapers, but yard refuse, leaves, tree trimmings, erc.

  2. Naomi Nov 4th 2009 at 06:04 pm 2

    I’ve heard it’s legal where I live (central Mass.) if you get permission - I’ve never tried so I’m
    not certain, but you can occasionally smell that lovely old-fashioned smell. I just worry about
    the ubiquitous poison ivy around here!

  3. RyanE Nov 4th 2009 at 06:11 pm 3

    Around here (UT), there are certain days that are specified as ‘burn days’, but you still have to have a permit.

  4. paperboy Nov 4th 2009 at 06:24 pm 4

    Berkeley, California; but only if you throw in the American flag.

  5. Frank Nov 4th 2009 at 06:52 pm 5

    In rural areas, it may not be “legal,” but it happens. In many of those places, it probably is legal. People who live on farms still have bonfires without permission, burn their leaves, and generally do quite a few things that most urban dwellers consider anachronistic activity that has long since been banned.

  6. Blinky the Wonder Wombat Nov 4th 2009 at 08:05 pm 6

    paperboy-

    *hah!*

  7. furrykef Nov 4th 2009 at 08:40 pm 7

    Forgive me if I’m being Captain Obvious here, but I’m sure whether it’s legal or not isn’t terribly relevant to the joke in the strip. (But I think, if anything, illegality would make it funnier.)

  8. jp Nov 4th 2009 at 09:10 pm 8

    One of my favorite memories from being a kid growing up in Toledo was burning leaves in the fall. It was generally a neighborhood thing — everyone would have raked their leaves out to the curb, and on the first dry, calm night everyone would come out after dinner and set the long, thin piles of leave on fire, and chew the fat while watching the leaves burn. The neighborhood would look like downtown LA on a bad day — blue/grey air everywhere.

    Of course, burning leaves in Toledo was long-ago banned. These days, the city pretends to pick up the leaves each fall, and the residents pretend that they don’t mind everything being buried ankle-deep in leaves.

    -jp

  9. Susan (the Neon Nurse) Crites Nov 4th 2009 at 09:28 pm 9

    I live in rural SE Colorado and like most other people who live out of town, we have a burn barrel for our trash. We save up plastic and non-recyclable things that don’t burn and take them to the dump once a month on Free Dump Weekend. NOT, however, the ashes from the burn barrel. The dump doesn’t accept those for fear of hidden, smoldering embers that could start a dump fire. So we haul the ashes out to the empty part of our land and spread them around.

    We don’t have enough trees for leaves to really be a problem. The wind blows them away sooner or later.

  10. turquoise cow Nov 4th 2009 at 09:30 pm 10

    my uncle lives outside Denver, Colorado, and has a “burn barrel” into which he tosses anything and everything. when he comes to visit us in Jersey, he often laments about how we do not have one. he lives in the middle of nowhere, off a dirt road, and so if the practice is illegal i am not sure that the law is ever enforced.

  11. Jeff S. Nov 4th 2009 at 10:07 pm 11

    Oklahoma, unless there are high winds and/or a prolonged dry period, then there is a burn ban.

  12. Tom Nov 5th 2009 at 01:41 am 12

    They just changed the law in NY to where the town landfulls can NOT burn leaves, but you can burn at your house once you get a permit.

  13. DanV Nov 5th 2009 at 01:58 am 13

    In southern Illinois we can burn leaves and yard waste and stuff with no permit. If things are really dry, a burn ban will be put into effect - and no fires after dark, at least in my town.

  14. mkilby Nov 5th 2009 at 03:11 am 14

    In Oregon it was once standard procedure to burn huge grass fields on a commercial scale. This was the “normal” way to eliminate weeds, so that a clean crop of grass seed and/or sod could be harvested. The practice became controversial after an incident where billowing smoke blew across a highway, leading to a very serious multiple car accident. There was talk of outlawing the practice, but I don’t know whether the law actually got passed.

  15. Marshal Nov 5th 2009 at 08:26 am 15

    As long as there is not a burn ban on ( usually due to drought) we can still
    burn leaves in South Carolina.

  16. Marshal Nov 5th 2009 at 08:28 am 16

    I should add that they still clear land with controlled burns around here.
    And sometimes they are actually controlled. 8^)

  17. Dustin Nov 5th 2009 at 09:24 am 17

    Suburban Georgia (just northeast of Atlanta), you’re allowed to burn leaves (or were when I lived there two years ago), but only during specified times of the year.

  18. Mark Nov 5th 2009 at 11:03 am 18

    We can burn here in central MO, without a permit even. We just call the fire department to see if it is a burn day (high winds or dry conditions determine whether it is or not), then leave our name, number, and address so they know where the ‘good’ fires are. Only stipulations are they must be 50′ from any structure, no man-made materials, and they have to be out by dark (or maybe they can’t be started after dark… the wording is vague).
    In fact, we’re having a burning this weekend because the high winds of last week blew every single leaf in the neighborhood onto our front porch, literally. They’re probably 2′ deep, if not deeper.

  19. AaronB Nov 5th 2009 at 12:41 pm 19

    It’s legal in California, at least in rural counties, as long as CalFire hasn’t declared a “no burn day.”

  20. Keera Nov 5th 2009 at 01:46 pm 20

    The rule in California is also the rule in Norway. Not that Norway is a US state (though some people over here claim we try to be).

  21. NoAlias Nov 5th 2009 at 10:19 pm 21

    Relatively rural VA, between Richmond and Norfolk: We can burn anything almost any time. People rarely burn leaves, though, because people rarely rake leaves. We can burn trash, we burn brush, we burn weeds in the ditches. In the spring we have the “4 p.m. burn law” legally restricting fires to after 4:00pm, I think because of winds creating hazard for controlling fires.

  22. 1415 dr Nov 6th 2009 at 05:15 pm 22

    I asked my local police station (Morrow, Ohio) if it was okay to burn leaves and they told me “as long as you don’t get caught,” so i called the fire department and they told me “as long as no one calls us to put it out.”

  23. Adam Nov 7th 2009 at 01:12 pm 23

    Unrelated to the burning discussion, but the second panel made me grin. I like that argument.

  24. ljdarten Nov 27th 2009 at 02:02 am 24

    Here where I am in Michigan, we can burn leaves and other natural stuff, but it can’t get over a certain height unless you get a permit. cant remember the number.

  25. Dan W. Feb 4th 2010 at 02:03 pm 25

    My wife grew up in a small western PA town and always comments on how she misses the smell of burning leaves in the fall. Still a legal practice there.

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