COEUR d’ALENE — For the first time in decades, nobody applied for a field-burning permit on the Rathdrum Prairie, though the practice continued on the Coeur d’Alene Indian Reservation.

According to Mark Boyle, air quality manager for Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, this is the first year that he has been with IDEQ where nobody has registered to burn the stubble of their fields.

“We don't have anybody registered out there on the prairie,” he said.

“Last year we had two big fields we tried to get burned, and this year we haven’t seen any.”

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