When headlines focus on record-setting wildfires, the conversation often centers on flame lengths, acres burned, and suppression efforts. While these factors matter, one of the nation’s leading wildfire scientists argues that we may be asking the wrong question.
Instead of asking how to stop every wildfire, Dr. Jack Cohen encourages us to ask how we can better prepare homes, ranches, and communities to withstand them. In a recent interview published in Forest News, Cohen discussed decades of research that have transformed our understanding of wildfire risk and what truly drives losses during wildfire events.
For landowners and producers across Texas, his message is both practical and empowering: wildfire resilience begins long before smoke appears on the horizon.
Rethinking Wildfire Risk
Cohen’s work as a Forest Service fire scientist helped reshape how wildfire professionals think about community losses. According to the interview, his research demonstrated that the ignitability of homes and structures is often the decisive factor in wildfire disasters, rather than the behavior of the wildfire itself.
That idea challenges a common assumption. Many people believe homes are destroyed primarily because a large wildfire directly engulfs them. In reality, homes and infrastructure are often vulnerable because of conditions immediately surrounding the structure. Cohen’s research has helped shift the focus toward creating ignition-resistant homes and fire-adapted communities.
For Texas landowners, this means wildfire preparedness is not solely about what happens across the landscape. It is also about what happens within a few feet of homes, barns, equipment sheds, livestock facilities, and other critical infrastructure.
The Growing Importance of Preparedness
Texas has experienced several significant wildfire events in recent years, including fires that moved quickly across rangelands under extreme weather conditions. As drought, heat, and wind combine to create elevated fire danger, reducing vulnerability before a wildfire occurs becomes increasingly important.
While ranchers cannot control weather conditions, they can influence how prepared their operations are when fire occurs.
Preparation may include:
- Reducing combustible materials around structures.
- Maintaining access routes for emergency vehicles.
- Developing livestock evacuation or relocation plans.
- Managing fine fuels around homes and working facilities.
- Identifying water sources and suppression resources.
- Coordinating with neighbors and local fire departments.
These actions may not prevent a wildfire from occurring, but they can significantly improve an operation’s ability to withstand one.
Fire Is a Natural Part of the Landscape
Another important takeaway from Cohen’s work is the recognition that fire is a natural ecological process. Throughout history, fire has shaped grasslands, woodlands, and forests across North America.
Many Texas ecosystems evolved with periodic fire. Historically, naturally occurring fires and Indigenous burning practices helped maintain healthy plant communities, recycle nutrients, reduce woody encroachment, and create diverse wildlife habitat.
When fire is excluded from fire-adapted landscapes for extended periods, fuels can accumulate. This build-up can contribute to more challenging fire behavior when wildfires eventually occur.
For many landowners, prescribed fire remains one of the most effective tools available for reducing hazardous fuels while maintaining healthy and productive rangelands.
Building Fire-Adapted Communities
Cohen emphasized the importance of creating wildfire-resistant communities rather than relying solely on fire suppression. His research helped influence national programs such as Firewise USA and broader efforts to improve community resilience.
Although much of the national conversation focuses on neighborhoods in forested regions, the same principles apply to rural communities and ranching operations across Texas.
Fire-adapted communities often share several characteristics:
- Awareness of local fire risk.
- Coordinated planning among landowners.
- Regular fuel management.
- Infrastructure designed to reduce vulnerability.
- Strong partnerships with local emergency responders.
These efforts help communities prepare for wildfire as an inevitable event rather than treating it as a rare possibility.
What This Means for Texas Ranchers
For producers, wildfire resilience extends beyond protecting homes. Livestock, fences, water infrastructure, hay supplies, equipment, and grazing resources are all vulnerable to wildfire impacts.
A wildfire preparedness plan should consider:
Livestock Management
Identify potential evacuation routes, temporary holding areas, and transportation resources before they are needed.
Infrastructure Protection
Evaluate vulnerable structures and facilities. Simple maintenance actions can reduce fire risk around homes, barns, and equipment storage areas.
Fuel Management
Maintain defensible space around critical infrastructure and consider long-term fuel reduction strategies where appropriate.
Communication
Know how emergency information will be received and shared during a wildfire incident.
Recovery Planning
Think beyond response. Consider how fencing, grazing management, and livestock operations would recover following a wildfire.
Resilience Starts Now
One of the most important lessons from Cohen’s career is that successful wildfire management is not solely measured by fires extinguished. It is also measured by communities that are prepared, landscapes that are resilient, and structures that can survive when wildfire occurs.
For Texas landowners, that is encouraging news. While wildfire is an unavoidable part of many landscapes, there are practical actions that can reduce risk and improve outcomes.
The most effective wildfire response often begins months or even years before the first spark. Whether through fuel management, prescribed fire, preparedness planning, or community collaboration, every step taken today can help create a more resilient tomorrow.
As wildfires continue to shape landscapes across the West, Cohen’s message remains highly relevant: protecting communities starts with making them less vulnerable to ignition in the first place.
Source: “A Conversation With Jack Cohen,” Forest News, Summer 2026, Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics.