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The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (“ADEQ”) and Arkansas Forestry Commission are holding on March 29th-30th in North Little Rock, Arkansas, The Arkansas Fire Policy Forum (“Forum”).

The Forum is sponsored by the Arkansas Environmental Federation and will be held at the Wyndham Riverfront Hotel.

A focus of the Forum is use by land managers of fire in forestry, conservation, and agriculture.

Arkansas is in attainment with all Clean Air Act National Ambient Air Quality Standards. Nevertheless, the use of fire in these contexts produces air contaminants and in some instances impacts on urban areas can generate issues that deserve attention.

The Forum is stated to be an effort to discuss the prudent use of fire and:

• To promote air quality as a factor to be considered when conducting activities that cause air contaminant emissions
• To promote, encourage, and enhance best management practices and plans for use of fire as a management tool
• To stimulate discussion of recent and up-coming actions that might affect these practices, and to develop recommendations for any future federal, state, or local policies that may be appropriate for further consideration

The Forum’s keynote speaker will be Congressman Bruce Westerman.

Congressman Westerman serves Arkansas’s Fourth Congressional District. He is an engineer and forester by trade, formerly working at Mid-South Engineering in Hot Springs for 22 years.

Featured speaker will be Wayne Cascio, MD, FACC. Dr. Cascio is Acting Director of the National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Forum presentations will include:

• ADEQ Perspective
• The Need for Smoke Management
• Fire as a Tool
• EPA’s Regional Haze Rule
• Agricultural Practice and Policies
• Legal Overview
• Impact of Crop Residue Management on Rice Production and Developing Crop Residue Burning Inventory
• Prescribed Burning and Air Quality
• Storm Debris Burning
• State of the Air in Arkansas
• Remote Sensing and Satellite Detection Research
• Smoke Models
• FLM Role in Regional Haze
• Exceptional Events
• Prescribed Burns and PM2.5
• Wildfire Smoke: Health Effects and Public Health Outreach
• Exceptional Events and Air Monitoring
• Medical Marijuana Comes to Arkansas

A Forum brochure can be downloaded here.