West Texas Rangelands
West Texas RangelandsWe hope to provide a variety of science-based rangeland information and current research on prescribed fire, wildfires, brush management, and grazing management!

Prepared Today, Resilient Tomorrow: Making Wildfire Preparedness Part of Rangeland Stewardship

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Wildfire risk is a natural part of West Texas rangelands, but preparedness is most effective when it is part of ongoing land stewardship. Managing rangelands with long-term resilience in mind not only protects property and resources, but also supports ecosystem health and sustainable operations. 

Integrating Preparedness into Stewardship Practices 
Preparedness begins with everyday land management decisions. Practices such as targeted grazing, rotational grazing, and selective vegetation management help reduce fuel loads while maintaining healthy grass and brush cover. These strategies are not one-time solutions—they are ongoing practices that strengthen the landscape over years. 

Infrastructure and Access as a Stewardship Tool 
Maintaining roads, fence lines, water sources, and access points is a long-term investment in rangeland resilience. Clear access allows for safe movement of equipment and personnel if wildfire conditions arise. Roads and defensible corridors also serve as strategic breaks in fuel, reducing potential fire spread while supporting everyday operations. 

Monitoring Conditions Over Time 
Ongoing observation of vegetation, fuel, and weather trends is central to long-term preparedness. Tools like the Jornada Rangeland Analysis Platform provide historical and current data on vegetation growth and drought patterns. Combining this data with on-the-ground monitoring helps landowners make adaptive decisions, such as adjusting grazing or vegetation treatments, in a way that supports both land health and wildfire preparedness. 

Preparedness as a Continuous Practice
Long-term wildfire preparedness is not about expecting a fire every year. It is about creating a resilient, well-managed landscape that can better withstand unpredictable events. Maintaining native grasses, managing fuel continuity, and planning infrastructure improvements over time ensures the land remains productive and safer under a variety of conditions. 

Building Resilient Rangelands
By treating preparedness as part of overall stewardship, landowners reinforce their long-term investment in rangeland health. The combined effect of fuel management, infrastructure planning, monitoring, and adaptive management reduces potential wildfire impact while sustaining the ecological and economic productivity of West Texas rangelands. 

Fuel, Weather, and Risk: Monitoring Wildfire Conditions on Your Land

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Wildfire risk on rangelands is influenced by changing conditions rather than a fixed season. Weather patterns, vegetation growth, and fuel dryness all vary throughout the year. Monitoring these conditions helps landowners and managers understand when wildfire risk may increase and supports better decision-making. 

Tracking Fuel Conditions
One of the most important factors to watch is fuel condition. Grasses and other fine fuels dry at different rates depending on temperature, wind, and recent precipitation. After periods of rainfall, rangelands may produce increased vegetation that later becomes dry fuel. Observing changes in fuel amount and dryness over time provides valuable context for management activities. 

Watching Weather Patterns
Weather conditions also play a key role. Low humidity, strong winds, and extended dry periods can increase fire potential. Monitoring forecasts and short-term weather trends helps identify periods when caution may be needed. These conditions can occur at any time of year in West Texas, including winter months. 

Using Regional Data Tools
In addition to on-the-ground observations, land managers can use online tools to track broader trends. The Rangeland Analysis Platform (RAP) provides data and visual tools that help users assess vegetation productivity, drought patterns, and long-term rangeland conditions. This platform allows landowners to view changes across large areas and compare current conditions to historical averages. 

Connecting Data with Local Knowledge
Using tools like RAP alongside local knowledge creates a clearer picture of rangeland conditions. While no single dataset can predict wildfire, combining field observations with regional data improves awareness and supports informed planning. 

Applying What You Observe
Monitoring conditions also helps guide everyday decisions. Timing of equipment use, grazing rotations, or vegetation treatments can be adjusted based on current fuel and weather conditions. This approach reduces unnecessary risk while maintaining normal land management operations. 

Staying Aware Over Time
Monitoring is not about expecting wildfire to occur. Instead, it is a way to stay informed and adaptable. Conditions change, and understanding those changes helps landowners respond thoughtfully rather than reactively. 

Roads, Buffers, and Water: Preparing Your Ranch for Wildfire

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Wildfire is one of several natural disturbances that can affect West Texas rangelands under certain conditions. While wildfire does not occur every year or on every property, periods of dry weather, low humidity, and strong winds can increase risk. January provides a useful time to evaluate infrastructure and address potential vulnerabilities ahead of higher-risk periods. 

Infrastructure influences both wildfire prevention and response. Roads, fences, water sources, and access points affect how fire may move across a landscape and how landowners or responders may access an area if a wildfire occurs. Maintaining these systems can reduce potential impacts and improve safety. 

Roads and Access Points 

Well-maintained roads improve access for routine management and can be important if emergency access is needed. Roads also create breaks in vegetation that may slow fire spread under certain conditions. Keeping roads passable and managing vegetation along road edges helps maintain these benefits. 

Fence Lines and Corridors 

Fence lines, pipelines, and utility corridors often accumulate grasses and debris. These areas can create continuous fuel pathways if ignited. Managing vegetation along these corridors helps reduce fuel continuity and may limit fire movement between pastures. 

Water Availability

Water infrastructure can support wildfire response if needed. Stock tanks, ponds, and troughs should be accessible and free of excessive vegetation. Clearly identifying water access points ahead of time improves readiness without assuming they will be needed. 

Structures and High-Use Areas 

Barns, sheds, working pens, and equipment areas are commonly used spaces where ignition sources may be present during dry and windy conditions. Reducing fine fuels around these areas helps lower the chance that a fire could spread to structures. Maintaining open space around buildings also improves visibility and access. 

Planning and Timing 

Infrastructure preparation is most effective when addressed well before high-risk conditions develop. Reviewing access routes, identifying areas with heavy fuel accumulation, and making gradual improvements allows flexibility in management decisions. 

Wildfire is not guaranteed, but preparation supports resilience. Maintaining functional infrastructure improves overall land management and ensures that, if wildfire conditions develop, landowners are better positioned to respond safely and effectively. 

Visit our site to learn more about wildfire risk.

The New Wildfire Season

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Wildfires have become a significant concern in the United States, causing substantial economic, environmental, and agricultural losses. The financial burden, regional impact, and seasonal length of wildfires have increased in recent decades, raising national and global concerns. In fact, since 2015, three of the five largest wildfire years for acreage burned in the United States have occurred.  [Read more…] about The New Wildfire Season

Wildfire Preparedness: Protecting Your Ranch

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Texas A&M AgriLife has released a new publication in preparing the ranch for wildfire! 

Wildfire: Preparing the Ranch is an online educational resource debuting at Texas Panhandle wildfire preparedness educational meetings in Pampa and Canadian. The resource is designed to equip Texas agricultural producers with educational information and tools to prepare for wildfires. 

[Read more…] about Wildfire Preparedness: Protecting Your Ranch

Wildfire Risk to Communities

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What is Risk? Risk is the probability and consequences of uncertain future events. It is the framework for understanding the implications of decisions because the decisions we make all come with a tradeoff. Wildfire Risk is the likelihood of a wildfire occurring and the potential effects it would have on things we care about. Being able to estimate the likelihood and consequences of wildfires, we are better able to consider and plan for possible outcomes. 

[Read more…] about Wildfire Risk to Communities

Future Wildfire Seasons: Hotter, Dryer, and Longer

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A Fire danger index (FDI) is a measure that is used to assess the risk and severity of a fire. It relies on the combination of weather and fuel conditions. These FDI’s have been used to help predict and manage the risk of wildfires. Even with these tools, there is still uncertainty in predicting the likelihood of fire ignition or the potential size the fire can get. 

In the study below, four of the FDI’s were analyzed and had a sensitivity analysis performed on them to determine the most important drivers. The sensitivity analysis determined that daily minimum relative humidity, precipitation, and wind speed were the most important driving factors in future wildfire dangers, including length of a wildfire season. 

The study also included a regional climate model simulation to derive FDI’s for current and future climate conditions. The results from this simulation suggested that an overall increase in fire potential and a prolonged wildfire season is expected in our future Texas climate. Enhanced fire frequency and fire season length is expected to occur in Spring and Summer throughout the Southern Great Plains. 

By 2050, the number of days with wildfire danger in Texas could increase by as many as 40 days per year with high heat and dry periods significantly lengthening the wildfire season. 

For more information and to read the study below, click here –  Earth s Future – 2023 – Yu – Performance of Fire Danger Indices and Their Utility in Predicting Future Wildfire Danger Over!

 

Yu, G., Feng, Y., Wang, J., & Wright, D. B. (2023). Performance of fire danger indices and their utility in predicting future wildfire danger over the conterminous United States. Earth’s Future, 11(11). https://doi.org/10.1029/2023ef003823

The Wildfire Impacts of the 2017-2018 Precipitation Whiplash Event across the Southern Great Plains

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Above average precipitation during the growing season, spurring on massive amounts of grass growth, followed by significant drought, resulting in an intense wildfire season.  All within a single year. It’s absolute whiplash!  Sound familiar? Researchers recently examined the role of whiplash events where preceding precipitation produce massive fuel for wildfires in a short period of time using 2017-2018 in Texas and Oklahoma as a case study. While studies like these have been done in California, there have been limited studies like this across the Southern Great Plains. This study was the first time that the relationship among precipitation, vegetation, and wildfires have been looked at collectively across the Southern Great Plains! 

[Read more…] about The Wildfire Impacts of the 2017-2018 Precipitation Whiplash Event across the Southern Great Plains

Snow Hill Fire Lessons Learned

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On August 2, 2023, the San Jacinto County Sheriff’s Office requested assistance from the Texas A&M Forest Service on a grass fire at FM 946 South and Harrell Road. A dominant upper-level ridge of high pressure resided over Texas from the middle of June through early August. These conditions resulted in flash drought conditions, which was only intensified by the well below normal rainfall.

[Read more…] about Snow Hill Fire Lessons Learned

National Prescribed Fire Resource Mobilization Strategy

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This summer the National Prescribed Fire Resource Mobilization Strategy was released. The plan calls for six prescribed fire implementation teams to be created that will incorporate prescribed fire practitioners and expertise into a management structure.  This concept would support the implementation of prescribed fire at multiple organizational and complex levels. These teams would be tailored to meet specific needs and facilitate multiple projects simultaneously. Each function that supports the implementation of prescribed burning can be scaled up or down at any level, to ensure that logistical, financial, planning, safety, and public information are staffed accordingly. 

 

 

[Read more…] about National Prescribed Fire Resource Mobilization Strategy