Atmospheric Environment 36 (2002) 3779–3792

Air pollutant emissions associated with forest, grassland, and

agricultural burning in Texas
Ann Dennisa, Matthew Fraserb, Stephen Andersonc, David Allena,*
a
Department of Chemical Engineering and Center for Energy and Environmental Resources, University of Texas at Austin,
Building 133 MC-R7100, Austin, TX 78758, USA
b
Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA
c
Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, Austin, TX, USA
Received 11 September 2001; accepted 14 February 2002

Abstract

Outdoor fires, such as wildfires and prescribed burns, can emit substantial amounts of particulate matter and other
pollutants into the atmosphere. In Texas, an inventory of forest, grassland and agricultural burning activities revealed
that fires consumed vegetation on 1.6 and 1.7 million acres of land, in 1996 and 1997, respectively. Emissions from the
fires were estimated based on survey and field data on acres burned and land cover and literature data on fuel
consumption and emission factors. Fire data were allocated spatially by county and temporally by month. While fire
events can cause high transient air pollutant concentrations, for most criteria pollutants, the fire emissions were a
relatively small fraction of the annual emission inventory for the State. For fine particulate matter, however, the annual
emission estimates were 40,000 tons/yr, which is likely to represent a significant fraction of the State’s emission
inventory, especially in the counties where the emissions are concentrated.
r 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Fire; Texas; Emission inventory; Land cover; Particulate matter; Criteria pollutants

1. Introduction emissions. Individually, some of these events are well

Outdoor fires, such as wildfires and prescribed burns,
can emit substantial amounts of particulate matter (PM)
and other pollutants into the atmosphere. These
emissions may significantly impact air quality on both
local and regional scales. Some events are extreme and
the contributions of fires to air pollutant concentrations
are readily observable. For example, in 1998, fires in
Mexico and Central America consumed an estimated
3.45 million acres prompting air pollution emergencies
in dozens of cities and creating smoke traveling as far as
Florida and North Dakota (NRDC, 1999). More
commonly, however, fires of various types contribute
sporadically and at a moderate level to air pollutant
*Corresponding author.
E-mail address: allen@che.utexas.edu (D. Allen).
documented, but annual frequencies and the spatial
distribution of fire events are not well characterized. Yet,
these events may be a significant contributor to PM and
other air pollutant emissions in some regions. In this
work, the spatial and temporal distributions of a variety
of different types of fire events are estimated for Texas.
These analyses indicate that fire events can be significant
contributors to total PM concentrations in areas with
extensive agricultural and forestry activity, such as
Texas.
Specifically, annual and monthly emission inventories
for 2 years are reported. One year (1997) had relatively
few extreme weather events with high temperatures and
dry conditions. The other year, 1996, had a greater
frequency of extreme weather events. Emissions are
reported for PM, PM o10 mm in diameter (PM10), PM
o2.5 mm in diameter (PM2.5), carbon monoxide (CO),

1352-2310/02/$ - see front matter r 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 1 3 5 2 - 2 3 1 0 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 2 1 9 - 4
3780 A. Dennis et al. / Atmospheric Environment 36 (2002) 3779–3792
methane (CH4), non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHC),
nitrogen oxides (NOx), and ammonia (NH3). The
emissions are reported for several types of fire events,
which are defined as follows:
1. Wildfires: Unwanted and accidentally, maliciously,
or naturally ignited fires that occur in wildland.
2. Prescribed burning: Non-agricultural controlled for-
est/understory, grassland, and rangeland manage-
ment fires excluding slash burning.
3. Slash burning: Planned non-agricultural fires of
biomass residues resulting from timber harvesting
practices and land clearing operations.
4. Agricultural field burning: Agricultural land clearing
burning, planting preparation burning, stubble burn-
ing, crop residue/waste burning, and burning of
standing fields such as sugarcane.
Finally, the accuracy of the emissions estimates was
assessed by comparing the fine PM emissions related to
fires, estimated for the Houston area, to emissions
estimated based on the concentration of levoglucosan, a
molecular tracer for cellulose combustion, found in fine
PM (Simoneit et al., 1999).
2. Methodology
2.1. Emission inventory overview
Emissions were estimated by applying the following
expression:
Emissions ðlb:Þ ¼ Emission factor ðlb:=tonÞ
* Fuel consumption ðtons=acreÞ
* Area burned ðacresÞ: ð1Þ
Therefore, the construction of the emissions inventory
involved estimating acreage burned, fuel consumption
and emission factors. Acreage burned was estimated
using county level information on frequency and extent
of various fire events. The methods used depended on
the type of fire event, and are documented below. Most
of the data on acreage burned were obtained by
surveying land management agencies. Fuel availability
was estimated based on landcover mappings of wild-
lands and croplands. An extensive database on land-
cover types found in Texas has been reported by
Wiedinmyer et al. (2000, 2001) and these data were
used extensively in estimating fuel availability. Fuel
consumption estimates and emission factors were drawn
from the literature. Finally, the data on acreage burned,
fuel loadings, and emission factors were assembled into
a Geographical Information System (GIS) to facilitate
manipulation and display of the data. The specific
methodologies used for each of the major types of fire
events are described below.
2.2. Wildfires
2.2.1. Estimates of acreage burned
Estimates of the acreage burned by wildfires in Texas
during 1996 and 1997 were obtained by surveying the
agencies listed in Table 1. The significance of each of the
sources of data is indicated by the burned acreage
reported by the agency. State and federal agencies
supplied all of the fire records as acreage burned, with
the exception of the Texas Fire Incident Reporting
System (TEXFIRS). The TEXFIRS (Texas Department
of Insurance, 1997a, b), a voluntary reporting system for
local fire departments, only reports the number of fires
rather than the area burned. For counties that reported
fires, the number of fires was converted into acreage
burned using data on fire size reported by the Depart-
ment of the Interior (Department of the Interior, 1998;
Dennis, 2000). The average size for fires in rural areas
was assumed to be 1.2 acres and in urban areas, the size
was assumed to be 0.25 acres. In addition, not all
counties in the state participate in the system. For these
counties, an extrapolation procedure was devised to
estimate the acreage burned for non-reporting counties
(Dennis, 2000). The extrapolation procedure involved
dividing the state into five regions (Panhandle, North
Central, West, East/Central, and Valley/Far South).
Counties for which data were available in each of these
regions were used to estimate data for other counties in
the same region. Specifically, if data on acres burned in
wildfires were not available for a county, the fraction of
wildland acres burned was estimated based on the
fraction of wildland burned in other counties in the
region. Details are described by Dennis (2000). Texas
had an above average wildfire year in 1996, as is
reflected by the nearly twice as many acres consumed in
1996 than in 1997.
2.2.2. Fuel availability
To assess fuel availability, the major vegetation types
in the fire location were identified using a land cover
Table 1
Total acres of wildfires reported by various agencies for 1996
and 1997
Agency Acres burned
1996 1997
Fish and Wildlife Service 18,310 16,366
National Park Service 1631 366
US Forest Service 7937 1317
Texas Fire Incident Reporting System 44,065 28,861
Texas Forest Service—Piney Woods 36,426 8203
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department 756 1068
Total 109,125 56,181
 A. Dennis et al. / Atmospheric Environment 36 (2002) 3779–3792
map described by Wiedinmyer et al. (2001). The data for
rural areas in this map are primarily drawn from
landcover maps developed by the Texas Parks and
Wildlife Department (Texas Parks and Wildlife Depart-
ment, TP&WD, 1998) and field biomass density surveys
performed by the University of Texas (Wiedinmyer,
1999; Wiedinmyer et al., 2000, 2001; Dennis, 2000). The
landcover data have a spatial resolution of 1 km,
therefore, biomass types available as fuel can either be
estimated using the exact location of the fire, or by using
county-average data for biomass density. For the Fish
and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service data,
obtained in GIS format as point locations, biomass
availability could be estimated directly for the precise
location of these fires. For the remaining data, because
the exact burn locations are not known, a distribution of
the fraction of each wildland cover type in every county
was assembled. Then, the acreage burned by county was
multiplied by the fractions to determine the estimated
acres burned by cover type.
2.2.3. Emission factor
A variety of emission factors for wildfires were
reviewed, including those available in the US Environ-
mental Protection Agency’s AP-42 Documents (1992,
1996a, b), data available from the California Air
Resources Board (1997), the Emission Inventory Im-
provement Program (1998, 1999), and data available in
models developed by the United States Forest Service.
The First Order Fire Effects Model (FOFEM 4.0) was
selected for use in the emissions estimation process
(Reinhardt et al., 1997). This choice was made based on
input required for the models and the desire to use a
consistent modeling methodology across source cate-
gories. Using FOFEM to estimate emissions, based on
acreage burned (sorted by land cover type), involves two
steps. The first step is to use fuel models to estimate the
fuel consumption. To estimate fuel loading and con-
sumption in FOFEM, the user can select a vegetation
cover type (to which a fuel model has been designated),
that best represents the dominant overstory species or
Table 2
Selected hydrocarbon and particulate emission factors (lb/ton) for wildfire, prescribed, and slash burns. The factors were calculated
under dry conditions for each fuel component
Fuel component Average CE Emission factor (lb/ton)
CO
00
Litter, Wood 0–1 0.95 52
Wood 1–300 0.92 111
Wood 3+00 0.89 174
Herb, shrub, regen 0.85 249
Duff 0.82 316
Canopy fuels 0.85 249
3781
species mix in the fire area. The coverages and fuel
models in FOFEM were developed using the Society of
American Foresters cover types (Eyre, 1980) for forested
areas and the Forest-Range Environmental Study
ecosystem types (Garrison et al., 1977) for shrub and
grassland areas. The cover types are grouped into four
geographic regions. The cover types available in the
regions ‘Interior West’ and ‘South East’, which together
have 72 different cover types, are suggested for the state
of Texas. In this work, each of the 600 land cover types
used by Wiedinmyer et al. (2001) to characterize Texas
was mapped onto a land cover type in the FOFEM
model. This resulted in a fuel consumption (tons/acre)
categorized based on the landcover definitions of
Wiedinmyer et al. (2001). Details are described by
Dennis (2000). The consumption is reported in fuel
components of litter, duff, dead fuel, and live fuel. Dead
fuel is broken down into three categories based on
diameter: Wood 0–1 in, Wood 1–3 in, and Wood 3 in or
greater. Live fuels include herb, shrub, conifer regenera-
tion (regen), and canopy fuel components. Fuel con-
sumption for wildfires in Texas ranged from o1 ton/
acre to more than 10 tons/acre, depending on the
landcover type.
The second step in applying FOFEM was to develop
an emission factor, based on tons of fuel burned. The
emission factors selected for wildfire, prescribed and
slash burning were taken from the combustion efficiency
algorithms derived by the USFS (Ward et al., 1993) for
PM, PM2.5, PM10, CO, CH4, and NMHC (Table 2).
These emission factors depend on assumptions of
combustion efficiency. Combustion efficiencies assumed
in this work are reported in the table and the rationale
for choosing these values is described at length by
Dennis (2000).
Nitrogen containing compounds have been measured
in biomass burning emissions and several emission
factors are available (Hegg et al., 1989; Ward and
Hardy, 1991; Yokelson et al., 1997; Lee and Atkins,
1994; Dignon and Penner, 1991). The dominant
nitrogenous species detected are NOx in the flaming
CH4 NMHC PM PM2.5 PM10
3 6 15 8 9
6 9 20 12 14
9 12 26 16 19
12 16 33 21 25
15 20 39 26 30
12 16 33 21 25
3782 A. Dennis et al. / Atmospheric Environment 36 (2002) 3779–3792

Table 3
Selected nitrogenous emission factors (lb/ton) and parameters used in the calculations by fuel component for wildfire, prescribed and
slash burns

Fuel component Average CE CO2 CO MCE NOx NH3

Litter, Wood 0–100 0.95 3483 52 0.99 2.5 0.5

Wood 1–300 0.92 3373 111 0.97 2.5 1.1
Wood 3+00 0.89 3263 174 0.95 2.5 1.7
Herb, shrub, regen 0.85 3116 249 0.93 2.5 2.6
Duff 0.82 3006 316 0.91 2.5 3.2
Canopy fuels 0.85 3116 249 0.93 2.5 2.6

CE=Combustion Efficiency. MCE=modified combustion efficiency.

phase and NH3 in the smoldering phase of combustion. Table 4

However, the quantity of these nitrogenous compounds
is highly dependent on fuel nitrogen, which is variable
between vegetation coverages, from 0.19% to 0.85%
(Dignon and Penner, 1991; Lee and Atkins, 1994). There
are few data on nitrogen content in fuel components by
landcover type. Thus, a nitrogen content of 0.7%, which
is a midrange value and is a value representative of the
dominant species types in Texas, was selected for all fuel
components, across all vegetation types. This is a rough
estimate, due to the lack of information available, and it
must be emphasized that this emission factor is only a
first estimate. The NOx emission factor, was assumed to
be proportional to the percent fuel nitrogen, as reported
in Eq. (2) (Dignon and Penner, 1991):
EF NOx ðlb=tonÞ ¼
3 þ 7:8nf ;
where nf ¼ 0:7% fuel nitrogen.
A similar relationship, using the percent fuel nitrogen,
has not been developed for ammonia emissions. How-
ever, recognizing that fuel nitrogen will also influence
ammonia emissions suggests using a molar ratio of NH3
to NOx to calculate the ammonia emission factor (3)
(Yokelson et al., 1997).
NH3
¼ 14½1
MCE;
NOx
where MCE is the modified combustion efficiency:
DCO2
MCE ¼
DCO2 þ DCO
and D refers to the measured fire production of a gas
above background levels.
Because this relationship requires CO2 and CO
emission factors, in the modified combustion efficiency
equation, the ammonia emission factors will be different
for each fuel component since the CO2 and CO emission
factors vary with combustion efficiency. The NOx and
NH3 emission factors used in this work are shown by
fuel component in Table 3. Details of the calculations
are presented by Dennis (2000).
Acres consumed in prescribed wildland fire emissions, by
agency for 1996 and 1997
Agency Acres burned
1996 1997
Fish and Wildlife Service 19,212 57,835
National Park Service 90 2792
US Forest Service 17,164 63,009
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department 8589 14,991
Private—Piney Woods Region 18,735 22,263
Total 63,790 160,890
2.3. Prescribed burning on wildlands
ð2Þ
2.3.1. Estimates of acreage burned
Estimates of the acreage consumed in Texas by
prescribed burns on wildlands during 1996 and 1997
were obtained by surveying private, state and federal
agencies. The significance of each of the sources of data
is indicated by the burned acreage reported by the
agency, given in Table 4. In this work, prescribed
burning on wildland included any managed fire con-
ducted for wildland management purposes, such as to
ð3Þ
reduce forest understory, control grassland or shrubland
vegetation, or to improve wildlife habitat. Prescribed
burning of wildland is primarily conducted by public
agencies, even though the majority of Texas lands
ð4Þ are privately owned. The one exception is in the
Piney Woods region of East Texas where private
industrial and non-industrial timberland is burned.
Fire history data were collected from four public
agencies and from an estimate of practices on private
lands in the Piney Woods region (described in detail
by Dennis, 2000). The acreage collected for 1996 and
1997 shows that two and half times more area was
burned in 1997 than 1996 (Table 4). This may be due
to the fire prevention activities by public agencies in
1997, in response to an above average wildfire year in
1996.
 A. Dennis et al. / Atmospheric Environment 36 (2002) 3779–3792
2.3.2. Fuel availability and emission factors
The procedures used to assess fuel availability and
emissions were analogous to those used for wildfires.
The major vegetation type in the fire location was
identified using a land cover map described by Wie-
dinmyer et al. (2001). For the Fish and Wildlife Service
and the National Park Service data, obtained in GIS
format as point locations, biomass availability could be
estimated directly for the precise location of these fires.
For the remaining data, because the exact burn locations
are not known, a distribution of the fraction of each
wildland cover type in every county was assembled.
Then, the acreage burned by county was multiplied by
the fractions to determine the estimated acres burned by
cover type and county. Then, the fuel consumption and
emission factors from FOFEM were used to calculate
the emissions by reporting agency, county, and month.
2.4. Prescribed burning on rangelands
2.4.1. Estimates of acreage burned
Estimates of the acreage consumed in Texas by
prescribed burns on rangelands during 1996 and 1997
were estimated through a county-level survey to the
Agricultural Extension Service (AEXS). The AEXS assists
local farmers and ranchers and maintains 250 agricultural
extension agents, with one being stationed in nearly every
one of the 254 counties in Texas. A survey was sent to
each extension agent to obtain county-level estimates on
the number of acres burned during a typical year.
Identical surveys were also sent to the sheriff of each
county, since the sheriff was regarded as a potential source
of information about local fires. However, the surveys
sent to sheriffs had a low response rate, approximately
12%, and were often returned blank, whereas the surveys
to the AEXS had a 67% response rate.
County agricultural agents were asked to provide data
on range burning activities by month. Not all county
agents in the State responded, so an extrapolation
procedure was devised to estimate the acreage burned
for non-reporting counties. The extrapolation procedure
involved dividing the state into five regions (Panhandle,
North Central, West, East/Central, and Valley/Far
South). For each region, a weighted average fraction
of total rangeland burned was calculated. This was
converted to acreage burned per county using the
National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) 1997
report on estimated range area by county (US Depart-
ment of Agriculture, 1999a-c). Details are described by
Dennis (2000). In total, approximately 867,000 acres of
range are burned during a typical year.
2.4.2. Fuel availability and emission factors
The procedures used to assess fuel availability were
analogous to those used for wildfires. The major
3783
vegetation type in the county in which the fire occurred
was identified using a land cover map described by
Wiedinmyer et al. (2001). To assign fuel consumption
values to the data, a procedure identical to that
conducted for wildland emissions was completed, except
cover types and fuel loading appropriate for rangeland
were selected. The cover types selected had fuel
consumptions that ranged between 0.3 and 6.7 tons/
acre, mostly in the categories of live herb and shrub
fuels. Emission factors for the fuels were assumed to be
consistent with the emission factors used for wildfires,
however, since the fuel availability for rangeland is
different than for wildlands, the emissions per acre
burned were significantly less than for wildfires.
2.5. Slash burning
2.5.1. Estimates of acreage burned
Two types of slash burning were identified as
potentially significant sources of the total outdoor
burning emissions. First, in the Piney Woods Region
of East Texas, where commercial timber production
occurs, residue from logging operations is sometimes
burned as part of site preparation practices. Very little
documentation on these fires is available, as there is no
centralized reporting outside of individual company
records. Second, the burning of debris from land
clearing operations is thought to be problematic in
some areas of the state, particularly in the Piney Woods,
where forested land is cleared for development. How-
ever, no documentation on these fires or even on land
clearing practices in general exists. The Outdoor
Burning Rule (Title 30 Texas Administrative Code
Sections 111.201–111.221) allows land clearing waste
combustion where no practical alternative exists (Texas
Natural Resource Conservation Commission, TNRCC,
1998). Otherwise, there are no regulations, outside of
local jurisdiction that permit, prohibit or require the
recording of slash burning. Nevertheless, an effort was
made to determine the level of these two types slash
burning activities occurring in Texas. Because so little
information is currently available, the procedures used
here provide only a first estimate.
In the East Texas Piney Woods region, approximately
11.8 million acres of forested land is used as commercial
timberland (Texas Forest Service, TFS, 1999). After
timber is harvested, several site preparation practices
may be employed to prepare the cleared land for future
use. The removal of logging debris, such as stumps and
branches, is part of a typical site preparation. Often,
especially if the area is to be replanted, the logging
debris is burned on site. In the East Texas commercial
timberland, individual logging companies and site
preparation contractors dominate these burning activity
practices. Two large companies dominate logging
operations in Texas. Both of these companies were
3784 A. Dennis et al. / Atmospheric Environment 36 (2002) 3779–3792
contacted to determine the degree of logging slash
burning. One company, which owns about 1 million
acres of timberland, estimates that only 1 acre of residue
out of every 200 acres harvested, or 0.5%, is burned by
the company, a number typical of most large logging
companies (Carroll, 1999). However, smaller companies
are thought to burn a higher percentage. The second
large producer of timber in Texas estimates that their
company burns about 15,000–16,000 acres annually,
which constitutes approximately 70% of harvested land
to be replanted (Ray, 1999).
The Harvest Trends Report, an annual Texas Forest
Service (TFS) publication, lists the total industrial
timber harvest volume (in cubic feet) by county for pine
and hardwood timber removal, but the estimated area
harvested is not reported (Xu, 1998a, b). The Harvest
Trends Report does estimate, however, the total acreage
of tree planting by land ownership that occurred in the
entire Piney Woods area during 1996 and 1997. The
forest industry reportedly replanted 85,680 and 78,730
acres in 1996 and 1997, respectively. Using the
approximation suggested by one large producer in Texas
that slash burning occurs on 70% of harvested land that
is replanted, results in an estimated 59,976 and 55,111
acres of logging slash consumed during 1996 and 1997,
respectively. These totals were allocated to the each of
the 43 counties in the region based on the fraction of
total industrial timberland in each county. The Forest
Inventory and Analysis database provided the estimated
industrial timberland area by county (USFS, 1999).
In addition to slash burning for timber replanting,
burning of debris from land clearing operations is
sometimes used as a way to rapidly remove a large
quantity of waste. Because there are no permits required
for slash burning in Texas, other than on a local level,
determining the level of activity can be long and
complicated process. Due to lack of data, and in order
to provide a first estimate of the acres cleared from land
clearing operations, an estimation procedure was
devised based on population growth. That is, the
number of acres cleared is estimated by applying the
fraction of annual population growth to the urban area
in each county (5).
Estimated acres cleared ¼ Fraction population growth
* acres urban area: ð5Þ
First, the composite landcover database described by
Wiedinmyer et al. (2001), was used to determine the
total urban area in each county. Only 66 of the 254
counties had significant urban areas. Next, census data
for 1996 and 1997 populations by county were
assembled (US Census Bureau, 1999). After calculating
the fraction of population change for each county, 61
counties of the 66 were found to have experienced
growth. The five counties with negative population
change were assigned zero growth. Finally, applying the
growth fractions to the total urban area, an estimated
total of 50,200 acres were cleared annually from the 61
counties. It was assumed that between 1% and 10% of
the land cleared is burned, resulting in an estimate of
500–5000 acres burned for land clearing. Since even the
upper bound on the percentage of acreage burned (10%)
results in estimates of acreage burned that are small
compared to other source categories, the upper bound
(10% of land cleared is burned) was used. This is, of
course, only a very rough estimate, but it provides a
preliminary estimate of magnitude of these operations.
2.5.2. Fuel availability and emission factors
Since the only commercial timberland in the state is in
the Piney Woods region of East Texas, only one fuel
type, pine-hardwood mixed forested, is burned in timber
operations. The fuel consumption was calculated by
using the same procedures as employed for wildlands,
except that all wood types with a diameter >1 in were
assumed to have been cleared. Fuel consumed was
generally about 10 tons/acre. The first order fire effects
model (FOFEM 4.0) was used to determine the average
combustion efficiency of each fuel component.
For land clearing, the same procedures that were used
in estimating fuel consumption and emissions for
rangeland were employed, except that fires were
assumed to occur only in the counties with urban areas
experiencing population growth.
2.6. Agricultural field burning
2.6.1. Estimates of acreage burned
Agricultural waste, typically crop residues, can be
managed in a number of ways. Depending on the crop
type, waste can be tilled or plowed back into the field,
taken to a compost or landfill, used as supplemental
feed, or burned directly in the field. The burning of crops
residue is thought to be the least frequent disposal
method, except for sugarcane. In the US, wheat, rice,
sugarcane, peanut, soybeans, barley, and corn are
thought to have the most significant burning activity.
National inventories, including the US Greenhouse Gas
Emission Inventory and the National Emissions Trends,
estimate that 3% of all crop residues is burned annually
(EPA, 1998). However, the largest source of uncertainty
in these emission inventories is the estimated fraction of
crop residue burned each year because few states collect
such information and agricultural and burning practices
vary widely from state to state. Since Texas does not
maintain any records on crop burning activity, survey
data from the AEXS were used to estimate the fraction
of residue burned in each county.
The data requested from the agricultural extension
agents included the number of fires and acres burned
monthly during a typical year for a crop type specified
 A. Dennis et al. / Atmospheric Environment 36 (2002) 3779–3792 3785

by the agent. Next, after inspection of the survey data, a is most likely of wheat, corn, and hay/grass residues
list of reported crop types was compiled. Grasses, such since these crops were the most frequently reported on
as ‘hay pasture’ and ‘Bermuda grass’, were collectively the surveys.
grouped together into a ‘Hay’ crop type. This category Not all counties reported data, so the burning activity
also included Conservation Reserve Program lands, for crops in non-reporting counties was estimated by
forage, and unspecified pasture grass. The most frequent extrapolating the reported data. The first step in the
crop residues for which burning activities were reported extrapolation procedure was to determine the number of
were wheat, hay/grasses, and corn. The other crop types acres burned by month of each crop (wheat, corn, and
burned were milo, oats, rice, sorghum, and sugarcane. hay/grasses burning). The fraction of the harvested acres
Four counties reported ‘agricultural land clearing that were burned was determined for each crop in each
debris’. The majority of agricultural burning in the state of five regions in the State using county data on crop
harvests available from the Texas Agricultural Statistics
Service (TASS, 1999). This fraction, for each crop, in
each region, was averaged and the appropriate average
Table 5 value was extrapolated to non-reporting counties. The
Total acres burned and fuel loading values used to estimate fraction of acres burned, by crop, in each county was
agricultural burning emissions multiplied by the acres of crop harvested to yield acreage
burned, given in Table 5. Table 6 reports the emission
Crop Estimated Percent of Fuel load
residue acres acres (tons/acre) factors by crop type and Table 7 lists the estimated
burned harvested emissions, based on the acreage burned and the emission
factors.
Corn 131,203 7 4.2 Sugarcane residue, consisting of the tops and leaves of
Hay/grass 148,584 3 1.0 the sugarcane plant, is typically burned in the field as a
Sugarcane 17,195 64 2.7
regular crop management practice, either a few days
Wheat 220,633 8 1.9
before or after each harvest, which normally falls
between November and March. Only three counties in
the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas grow sugarcane:
Table 6 Cameron, Hidalgo and Willacy. These counties collec-
Emission factors selected for crop residue burning tively harvested approximately 34,600 and 26,688 acres
Pollutant Crop residue emission factors (lb/ton) of sugarcane in 1996 and 1997, respectively (USDA,
1999a). Because the burning of sugarcane residue has no
Corn Hay/ Wheat and technically or economically feasible alternative, the
grassesa sugarcaneb practice is allowed in Texas within guidelines established
CO 80.3 204.3 76.4 by the TNRCC to ensure safe burning (TNRCC, 1998).
NOx 3.7 5.1 5.8 Rio Grande Valley Sugar Growers’ Association
NH3a 1.6 6.7 2.1 (1998), a farmer’s cooperative, regulates the burning
CH4 3.4 6.3 0.9 activity in conjunction with the TNRCC. During each
NMHC 9.7 32.7 4.8 season, the sugar growers burn only on days when
PM 9.6 17.6 9.0 meteorological conditions are satisfactory as authorized
PM10 9.4 17.4 8.8 by the TNRCC. The sugar growers keep records of
PM2.5 9.1 16.9 8.3
weather conditions during authorized burning days, the
a
Based on barley straw emission factors. crop areas burned, as well as the estimated fuel loading
b
Based on wheat straw emission factors. available to each burn.

Table 7
Estimated annual emissions from agricultural burning source categories during a typical year

Crop residue Emissions (short tons/yr)

CO CH4 NMHC PM PM10 PM2.5 NOx NH3

Corn 22,136 931 2667 2634 2595 2502 1030 399

Hay/grasses 15,178 470 2431 1306 1293 1257 382 501
Sugarcane 1773 20 111 209 205 194 134 50
Wheat 16,014 184 1006 1886 1849 1748 1211 449
Total 55,000 1600 6200 6000 5900 5700 2800 1400
3786 A. Dennis et al. / Atmospheric Environment 36 (2002) 3779–3792

The Growers’ Association reported a total of 17,195
acres of residue burned during the 1997 season (data for
1996 were not available; Rio Grande Valley Sugar
Growers’ Association, 1998). Normalizing by the annual
acreage harvested in all the counties (26,688 acres), it
was found that approximately 64% of residues from
harvested acres were burned during the year. The acres
harvested in each county were multiplied by this fraction
to estimate the acres burned for each individual county
(Table 8).
2.6.2. Fuel availability and emission factors
Emission factors specific to crop types are reported in
Chapter 2.5 of AP-42 (EPA, 1992), but these factors are
given a ‘D’ rating indicating that the factors are of below
average quality, and are therefore not used in this
inventory. The University of California at Davis derived
specific factors for corn stover, and wheat, barley, and
rice straw combustion for the California Air Resources
Board (CARB, 1997; Jenkins et al., 1996). However,
because the CARB did not report on hay, pasture
grasses, or sugarcane emissions, the factors for these
residues were taken from the crop type thought to be the
closest representation and by comparing the older
emission factors found in AP-42. Ultimately, the barley
straw factor was chosen for hay/grasses, and the wheat
straw factor was selected for sugarcane. The final
emission factors used in this work are listed in Table 8.
The fuel loading value selected for sugarcane burning
is the average load of values reported by the Rio Grande
Sugar Growers’ Association. For corn, hay/pasture, and
wheat crop residues, the fuel loads, which ranged from 1
to 4 tons/acre, were estimated from the EPA’s AP-42
Document (1992).
3. Results and discussion
The total annual acreage burned in wildfires, pre-
scribed wildfires, prescribed rangeland fires, agricultural
fires, and slash burns, for 1996 and 1997 are reported in
Table 9. Tables 10 and 11 report the estimated emissions
from these activities. Examination of Tables 9–11
suggests that prescribed range burning contributes over
half of the total emissions associated with burning
operations, with estimated emissions approximately 5
times greater than other source categories. This is due in
part to the large acreage burned, but higher fuel
consumption per acre (especially compared to agricul-
tural operations) also makes a contribution.
Emissions due to burning operations are not dis-
tributed uniformly throughout the state. Fig. 1 shows
the PM2.5 emission distributions from all categories of
burning operations, expressed as tons/mile2. Similar
distributions would be obtained for the other pollutants,
since the emissions are all linearly dependent on fuel
Table 9
Total estimated acres burned by source category during 1996
and 1997

Table 8 Source category Acres burned

Annual acres sugarcane harvested and burned during the 1997
1996 1997
growing season. Allocated by county using the Rio Grande
Sugar Growers’ Association reports and the NASS crop Wildfire 109,125 56,181
production data Prescribed wildland 63,790 160,890
Prescribed range 867,053 867,053
County Acres harvested Annual acres burned
Agricultural 517,616 517,616
Cameron 9726 6266 Logging slash 59,976 55,111
Hidalgo 14,582 9395 Land clearing slash 5020 5020
Willacy 2380 1533 Total 1,622,579 1,661,871

Table 10
Annual emissions estimates for all source categories during 1996

Source category Emissions (short tons/yr)

CO CH4 NMHC PM PM10 PM2.5 NOx NH3

Wildfire 47,969 2317 3170 6449 4900 4152 510 428

Prescribed wildland 29,233 1416 1940 3951 2998 2539 316 232
Prescribed range 323,508 15,542 21,145 42,671 32,617 27,642 3232 3312
Agricultural 55,101 1606 6215 6035 5942 5700 2758 1398
Logging slash 49,203 2371 3236 6559 4997 4235 509 192
Land clearing slash 2528 129 21 11 5 2 0 0
Total 510,000 23,000 36,000 66,000 51,000 44,000 7300 5600
 A. Dennis et al. / Atmospheric Environment 36 (2002) 3779–3792 3787

consumed per county and the pollutant specific emission

Fig. 1. Spatial allocation of annual PM2.5 emission density
(short tons/mile2) from all source categories associated with
fires during 1996.
factor. East Texas exhibits the most concentrated
emissions. Counties in the Panhandle, Central Texas,
and parts of South Texas also have high emissions.
More insight regarding the contributors to the
emissions can be gained from examining the spatial
and temporal distribution of the emissions from
individual source categories. Figs. 2–10 show the spatial
and temporal distributions of PM2.5 emissions from
wildfires, prescribed wildfires, prescribed rangeland fires,
agricultural operations and slash burns, for 1996.
The spatial distributions show that wildfires, pre-
scribed burns of wildlands and slash burning are most
heavily concentrated in the heavily forested lands in the
eastern half of Texas. In contrast, agricultural burning
activities are concentrated in the Panhandle region.
Rangeland prescribed burns are distributed throughout
west and west Central Texas.
The temporal distributions also differ among the
source categories. Prescribed fires on rangeland, the
largest source of emissions, are most significant during

Table 11
Annual emissions estimates for all source categories during 1997

Source category Emissions (short tons/yr)

CO CH4 NMHC PM PM10 PM2.5 NOx NH3

Wildfire 24,341 1173 1602 3248 2474 2096 253 191

Prescribed wildland 80,690 3901 5339 10,874 8255 6996 864 601
Prescribed range 323,508 15,542 21,145 42,671 32,617 27,642 3232 3312
Agricultural 55,101 1606 6215 6035 5942 5700 2758 1398
Logging slash 45,212 2179 2973 6027 4592 3891 468 177
Land clearing slash 2528 129 21 11 5 2 0 0
Total 530,000 25,000 37,000 69,000 54,000 46,000 7600 5700

1.400
PM2.5 Emissions (short tons)

1.200

1.000 1996
1997
800

600

400

200

0
JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC

Fig. 2. Temporal distribution of PM2.5 emission estimates from wildfires during 1996 and 1997.
3788 A. Dennis et al. / Atmospheric Environment 36 (2002) 3779–3792
the winter. In contrast, the monthly distribution of
wildfires and agricultural burning, shown in Figs. 4 and
8, can be significant in virtually any month. For
agricultural burning, the specific crop residuals that
are burned vary seasonally. Fig. 8 shows that corn and
sugarcane residues are burned primarily in the winter,
while wheat is burned primarily in the late spring and
early summer.
The emissions data presented in Tables 8–10 and in
Figs. 2–10 have significant uncertainty associated with
them. The uncertainties are due to uncertainties in the
frequency and extent of fires, the landcover character-
izations, the fuel loadings and the emission factors. A
detailed uncertainty analysis is beyond the scope of this
Fig. 3. Spatial allocation of annual PM2.5 emission density
(short tons/mile2) from wildfires during 1996.
1.400
PM2.5 Emissions (short tons)
1.200
1.000
800
600
400
200
0
Jan
Fig. 4. Temporal distribution of PM2.5 emission estimates from prescribed fires on wildland reported by state and federal agencies
during 1996 and 1997. (Fires occurring on private lands are not included as only annual data were available.)
manuscript, however, an indication of the reliability of
these data can be obtained by comparing the emission
inventory to ambient observations of pollutant concen-
trations. For CO, CH4, NMHC, and NOx, the
contributions from fires are difficult to distinguish
chemically from other sources, and are generally small
in magnitude relative to other sources. For example, the
statewide annual emissions of NOx are approximately
106 tons/yr (EPA, 2000), compared to 7000 tons/yr from
all burning activities. The annual emissions of NMHC
from anthropogenic and biogenic sources are well in
excess of 106 tons/yr, compared to 40,000 tons/yr from
all burning activities. For CO, the total emissions due to
fires may approach 10% of the statewide inventory
Fig. 5. Spatial allocation of annual PM2.5 emission density
(short tons/mile2) from prescribed burning of wildland during
1996.
1996
1997
Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
 A. Dennis et al. / Atmospheric Environment 36 (2002) 3779–3792
12.000
PM2.5 Emissions (short tons)
10.000
8.000
6.000
4.000
2.000
0
Jan
Fig. 6. Temporal distribution of PM2.5 emission estimates from prescribed burning of rangeland during a typical year.
Fig. 7. Spatial allocation of annual PM2.5 emission density
(short tons/mile2) from prescribed burning of rangeland from a
typical year.
(500,000 tons/yr out of 5  106 tons/yr from all sources),
but the CO emissions from fires are not easily
distinguishable from CO from fossil, anthropogenic
sources.
In contrast, the emissions of fine PM from fires can be
distinguished chemically from other sources, and may be
significant relative to other sources (no statewide
inventory data are currently available). The feature that
distinguishes the particulate emissions from fires chemi-
cally is a molecular marker of cellulose combustion,
levoglucosan. Fraser and Yue (2001) made measure-
ments of levoglucosan at three sites in the Houston area,
using seasonal composites of samples taken every 6 days
over a year long period (Tropp et al., 1998). Fraser and
Yue (2001) found concentrations averaging 13, 18
3789
Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
and 92 ng/m3 for composite samples collected in the
spring, summer and winter, respectively. This seasonal
distribution is consistent with the seasonal distribution
predicted by the emission inventory. The contribution
of fires to PM concentrations can be assessed by
assuming that levoglucosan represents 15–30% of the
fine PM mass emitted from wood fires (Schauer, 1998),
and that average annual concentrations of fine PM are
15 mg/m3 (Tropp et al., 1998). For an annual average
levoglucosan concentration of 40 ng/m3, an annual
average of 0.2 mg/m3 can be attributed to fires. This
represents approximately 1% of the annual average fine
PM concentration.
A preliminary estimate of the magnitude of fine PM
emissions from fires can also be derived from the
levoglucosan measurements. Assume that approxi-
mately half of the elemental carbon in the fine PM in
the Houston area (1.6 mg/m3 annual average elemental
carbon concentration; analytical procedures for these
elemental carbon measurements are provided by Tropp
et al., 1998) is derived from diesel fuel combustion. This
is generated by the combustion of 1,000,000 kg/day of
diesel fuel combustion (Texas Comptrollers Office,
2000), which results in the formation of 0.6 g of
elemental carbon per kg fuel burned (Fraser et al.,
2002). Therefore, an emission rate of approximately
600 kg/day of elemental carbon is associated with
elemental carbon concentrations that are roughly 4
times the concentrations of fine PM associated with
burning activities. Therefore, an approximate emission
rate expected for fine PM from fires in the Houston area
is 100–200 kg/day. The estimated annual emissions from
fires in Harris County (includes all of urban Houston
and some surrounding rural lands) is 100 tons/yr or
0.3 tons/day (300 kg/day). This is slightly higher than the
estimate based on levoglucosan concentrations and
other estimates, but is certainly within the range of
uncertainty associated with the calculations.
3790 A. Dennis et al. / Atmospheric Environment 36 (2002) 3779–3792

1600

SUGAR
PM2.5 Emissions (short tons)
1200 WHEAT

HAY/GRASS
CORN
800

400

0
JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC

Fig. 8. Temporal allocation of PM2.5 emission estimates during a typical year for agricultural burning source categories.

Fig. 9. Spatial allocation of annual PM2.5 emission density Fig. 10. Spatial allocation of annual PM2.5 emission density
(short tons/mile2) from agricultural burning for a typical year. (short tons/mile2) from logging slash burning during 1996.

This calculation also suggests that fires may be a
significant contributor to fine PM emissions statewide.
Fires appear to account for about 1% of the mass found
in fine PM in urban Houston, where fire emissions are
low and contributions from other sources (such as diesel
fuel combustion) are high.
4. Conclusions
Outdoor fires, such as wildfires and prescribed burns,
can emit substantial amounts of PM and other
pollutants into the atmosphere. In Texas, an inventory
of forest, grassland and agricultural burning activities
revealed that fires consumed vegetation on 1.6 and 1.7
million acres of land, in 1996 and 1997, respectively. For
most criteria pollutants, the fire emissions were a
relatively small fraction of the total emission inventory
for the State. For fine PM, however, the annual emission
estimates were 40,000 tons/yr, which is likely to repre-
sent a significant fraction of the State’s emission
inventory, especially in the counties where the emissions
are concentrated.
Uncertainties in the emission inventory arise from
uncertainties in emissions factors taken from the
 A. Dennis et al. / Atmospheric Environment 36 (2002) 3779–3792
literature, uncertainties in fuel consumption estimates
and uncertainties in area burned. Any one of these
factors could be uncertain by a factor of two, but if these
values used for emission factors, fuel loads and acres
burned in the work are not biased, it is likely that the
overall uncertainty is within a factor of 2. This overall
uncertainty assessment is supported by a comparison of
measurements of the concentrations of a tracer of
cellulose combustion, measured near Houston, to
estimates of the concentrations that would be expected
based on emission rates predicted in this study.
Acknowledgements
This work was funded by the Texas Natural Resource
Conservation Commission, through contract number
9880077600-05 with the University of Texas.
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