COEUR d'ALENE - The Department of Environmental Quality approved the burning of two Kentucky Bluegrass fields on the Rathdrum Prairie Wednesday afternoon, and that was the last of it for this year.

Mark Boyle, regional air quality manager for DEQ, said farmers were approved to burn 370 acres, and those were the only two fields that applied to burn this year.

"We only had two burners out there on the Prairie this summer, and one in Rose Lake," Boyle said. "That's it and we are done for the season. That's a big change from years past."

DEQ has been managing the burns since 2008; before that a consortium of grass farmers managed the burning of thousands of acres of fields on the Prairie.

In the 1990s grass growers began diversifying their crops to get away from the controversial burning practice. Now, it appears there is only one family growing grass.

Boyle said DEQ goes through a very specific process to approve a field burning request. Weather conditions must be just right, he added.

"We had pretty good lift (Wednesday), and we had good ventilation," he said. "Still, when you have fire, you are going to have some smoke on the ground, but we try to minimize that as much as possible."

The burn didn't go without problems, however. Boyle said the fire did jump the road and caught the corner of a wheat field on fire. Fire crews from the Idaho Department of Lands responded to extinguish the fire.