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--Ecology and Management of Wildlife and Their Habitats |
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Trans-Pecos Prescribed Burn Association
People attending the organizational meeting came from across the Trans-Pecos including landowners/managers from Brewster, Culberson, Jeff Davis, Pecos, and Presidio counties. Texas Parks and Wildlife, the National Park Service, and the Nature Conservancy were also represented at the meeting. Tom Santry, the Brewster County Emergency Management Coordinator, also participated in the meeting. Fire is a big concern for area ranchers, county officials, and the general public. In recent years the large scale wildfires in the region have emphasized the need for proper fire and fuel management both on public and private properties. The burn association was created to address this need on private ranches throughout the Trans-Pecos. The major goals of a burn association are to: 1) provide for training in fire behavior and prescribed fire application to its members, 2) provide a community of landowners and individuals that can safely apply prescribed fire to rangelands, 3) provide a mechanism for certification as a certified prescribed burn manager and a decrease in liability for landowners, and 4) provide a mechanism to effectively communicate with county and other local officials to safely manage fire in a county. Many have asked why we need prescribed fire. Shouldn’t we put out all fires? The answer to that is fuel and vegetation management. One of the best ways to avoid catastrophic fires is to manage fuel loads via prescribed fires. Over the past 100 years, we have gotten very good at putting out wildfires. This has led to an increase in shrub species and an increase in the amount of fuel available to burn on our rangelands. Prescribed fires are a tool that landowners can use to reduce shrub species, increase grass diversity, and manage rangeland fuel loads, thus helping prevent catastrophic wildfires.
Prescribed fires are often one of the most effective and least expensive tools that private property owners have available to them when they manage their rangelands. Membership in the Trans-Pecos Prescribed Burn Association is open to anyone interested in prescribed fire and fire management. Membership dues are currently $25.00 per year. The next meeting will be March 12th at 6:00 P.M. in room 130 of the Turner Range Animal Science Center, Sul Ross State University, Alpine, Texas. For more information contact any of the board members listed above or Dr. Bonnie Warnock (432-837-8488 or bwarnock@sulross.edu) at Sul Ross State University.
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The Trans-Pecos Prescribed Burn Association was officially created on February 25th, 2009 when landowners and managers from across the Trans-Pecos region gathered at Sul Ross State University.