Record amounts of spring rains may have ended the five-year Texas drought, but it has also provided bountiful fuel for more than 200 wildfires that cropped up around the state last week.
Officials with the Texas A&M Forest Service and rangeland resource experts with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service say the growth that sprouted up as a result of the rains and the extended dry period and high temperatures that followed have created a perfect storm for wildfires in Texas.
Rhea Cooper, assistant chief regional fire coordinator with the Forest Service, said it has been a busy summer across the state, with officials monitoring moisture conditions and coordinating personnel and equipment resources to speed up response time if and when a wildfire occurs. “We’ve gone a long time without a measurable amount of rain and now everything is drying out, so that fuel has gone up,” Cooper said.
There have been 222 wildfires across Texas covering 30,585 acres in the past seven days. The Forest Service responded to 80 of those fires, which burned 30,000 acres.
Tim Steffens, a rangeland resource management specialist with A&M AgriLife based out of Canyon, said some of the “fine fuels” of dried-out extra growth from spring is a continuous burn source that can carry fires easier and faster with wind. Steffens said the lack of cattle on grazing lands as a result of ranchers reducing herd numbers during the drought has provided even more fuel, and things could get worse with a dry winter.
From The Eagle: https://www.theeagle.com/news/local/texas-a-m-forest-service-over-wildfires-hit-texas-in/article_067883a8-ee4a-5f6d-b1d2-2d312bbb515b.html