2015 marks the 100th anniversary of the Texas A&M Forest Service. Created in 1915 by the 34th Legislature, the agency is mandated to “assume direction of all forest interests and all matters pertaining to forestry within the jurisdiction of the state.” In 1993, the service’s mission was expanded by the 73rd Legislature to include “Coordination of the response to each major or potentially major wildland fire in the state.”
In Colorado County, the TFS provides education programs to landowners, the Columbus Garden Club and the Eagle Lake Garden Club and to youth in local schools. The service also provides seedlings to be planted on both private and public properties, consulting services to landowners, wildland firefighting resources, and incident command team support staff for wildland fires.
TFS Staff Forester Daniel Lewis, whose office is in La Grange, said that since 1993 the TFS has helped 45 landowners develop Oak Wilt Assistance Plans. Oak Wilt is caused by the fungus Ceratocystis fagacearum and kills trees. On live oaks, the leaves often develop yellow veins that eventually turn brown, and on red oaks young leave wilt, turning pale green and brown while mature leaves turn pale green or bronze, starting at the leaf margins and progressing inward. Fungal mats can often be seen on oaks that are infected.
“I worked with landowners about how to recover their properties after the Bailey Road Fire and talked with them about replanting,” Lewis said. The Bailey Road Fire started on Labor Day weekend Sunday, Sept. 4, 2011 and was finally controlled on Friday, Sept. 9. It burned 3,085 acres in northern Colorado County near the Mentz community that is close to Bernardo.
From The Colorado County Citizen: https://www.coloradocountycitizen.com/news/article_7a894f7c-a667-11e4-bb75-13ec8fadea29.html