Nowata County Commissioners Issue Burn Ban

NOWATA, OKLAHOMA

Release Per the Nowata County Board of County Commissioners - Contact the Nowata County Commissioners at (918) 273-0175

The City of Nowata is the County Seat of Nowata County.

The Nowata County Board of County Commissioners pursuant to the authority granted to the Board by Section 16-26.B of Title 2 of the Oklahoma Statutes, do hereby proclaim that extreme fire danger exists in Nowata County. This situation (as defined in Section 16-26.B.1. a-d, Title 2 O.S.) has been verified by a documented concurrence of the majority of the County's municipal and rural fire chiefs, or their designees.

By virtue of this resolution, it is unlawful for any person to set fire to any forest, grass, range, crop, or other wildlands, or to build a campfire or bonfire, or to burn trash, debris, or other materials that may cause a forest, grass, range, crop, or other wildland fire.

Exceptions to this fire prohibition and the appropriate precautionary measures to be taken are as follows:

• Grilling or outdoor cooking only on hard, fireproof surface of at least 10 feet by 10 feet.
• Welding, grinding, or gas torch work with a dedicated fire watch person and means to extinguish any fire (pressurized water).

Enforcement of this resolution may be carried out by any law enforcement office of this State. Any person convicted of violating this resolution shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be subject to a fine of not more than Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00), to imprisonment for not more than one (1) year, or to both such fine and imprisonment.

This resolution shall be effective immediately for a period not to exceed fourteen (14) days from the date of passage by the Board of County Commissioners. If extreme fire danger conditions persist, subsequent resolutions may be passed. This burn ban may be removed at any time during the fourteen-day period by the same method by which it was approved.

This notice of the resolution shall be submitted to the Forestry Division of the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry, all local news media, local law enforcement officials, and the state headquarters of the Department of Public Safety, the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department, and the Department of Wildlife Conservation on the day of passage of the resolution; and

Be it therefore resolved, that this Nowata County Board of Commissioners, Nowata County, Oklahoma, do hereby approve to implement a burn ban for Nowata County from this date (March 25th, 2026) through April 8th, 2026, and

Adopted by a majority vote at a meeting by the Board of Nowata County Commissioners at 1:00 pm on March 25th, 2026.