• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Texas A&M Forest Service
  • Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostics Laboratory
  • Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service
  • Texas A&M AgriLife Research
  • Texas A&M College of Agrculture and Life Sciences
West Texas Rangelands
West Texas RangelandsWe hope to provide a variety of information from current news stories, prescribed burning, wildfires, brush control, and cow-calf management!
  • Menu
  • Home
  • About and Contact
  • Articles and Publications
    • Extension Publications
    • Journal Articles
  • Events
  • Range Resources
    • Published to Pasture
    • Range Concepts
  • Fire Resources

Integrated Pest Management for Woody Encroachment

September 20, 2023 by casey.matzke

The top 5 woody invasive plant species in the Great Plains Grasslands include; Eastern redcedar, Honey mesquite, Chinese tallow, Ashe juniper, and Redberry juniper. Past brush management efforts have been unable to stop or reverse the loss of grasslands at county, state, or regional scales. Traditional management efforts have assumed that there are tolerable levels of the top five woody pests in grasslands before encroachment becomes a resource concern and mechanical or chemical removal of woody plants will restore a site back to a grassland. Scientists are now recommending more integrated approaches for dealing with woody species and ending the reinvasion cycle in grasslands. 

[Read more…] about Integrated Pest Management for Woody Encroachment

Filed Under: Brush Management, Conservation, Conservation Practices, Grazing Management, Publications, Woody Encroachment Tagged With: #grazing #ranchmanagement #brush #grasslands, brush management, Conservation, Conservation Management, Conservation Practices, Range Concepts, woody encroachment

SRM Multidisciplinary Rangeland Ecosystem Services Report

August 30, 2023 by casey.matzke

The Society for Rangeland Management recently released their Rangeland Ecosystem Services Report: Connecting Nature and People. The report includes five key rangeland service topic areas including; food and fiber, water as an ecosystem driver in rangelands, carbon sequestration and security, plant and insect biodiversity, and wildlife habitat provision. 

 

Photo: Rangeland Ecosystem Services Report

[Read more…] about SRM Multidisciplinary Rangeland Ecosystem Services Report

Filed Under: Beef Cattle, Conservation, Conservation Practices, Grazing Management, Society for Range Management Tagged With: brush management, Conservation, Conservation Management, Conservation Practices, Grazing

Reducing Woody Encroachment in Grasslands: A Pocket Guide for Planning and Design

August 23, 2023 by casey.matzke

Have you seen the latest Pocket Guide from the Great Plains Grasslands Extension Partnership? This Pocket Guide integrates new guidelines for reducing woody encroachment with a planning process. It is also an important resource that further incorporates the latest, science-based approaches for reducing woody encroachment.

 

 

[Read more…] about Reducing Woody Encroachment in Grasslands: A Pocket Guide for Planning and Design

Filed Under: Brush Management, Conservation, Conservation Practices, Grazing Management, Range Concepts, Woody Encroachment Tagged With: #grazing #ranchmanagement #brush #grasslands, brush management, Conservation, Conservation Management, Conservation Practices, Range Concepts, woody encroachment

Remove, Reduce, or Manipulate? Best Practices for Brush Management Conservation Standards in Great Plains Grasslands

August 9, 2023 by casey.matzke

One of the biggest confusion points in brush management is the decision between removing, reducing, or manipulating woody plants. Past management decisions have addressed the symptoms of woody encroachment but not the root cause of the problem. To contribute to the efforts to confront the loss of grasslands at county and state, clarity is needed on which woody species need complete removal versus species who can be reduced or manipulated  without the threat of grassland loss.

[Read more…] about Remove, Reduce, or Manipulate? Best Practices for Brush Management Conservation Standards in Great Plains Grasslands

Filed Under: Brush Management, Grazing Management, Publications, Range Concepts, Woody Encroachment Tagged With: brush management, grazing management, woody encroachment

22.4 Million Tons of Rangeland Production Lost to Woody Encroachment in Great Plains Grasslands

July 12, 2023 by casey.matzke

Did you know that 22.4 million tons of rangeland production are lost annually in the Great Plains to woody encroachment? Or that The Great Plains accounts for approximately 95% of the nation’s lost rangeland production to woody encroachment?

[Read more…] about 22.4 Million Tons of Rangeland Production Lost to Woody Encroachment in Great Plains Grasslands

Filed Under: Brush Management, Conservation, Conservation Practices, Range Concepts, Woody Encroachment Tagged With: brush management, Range Concepts, woody encroachment

USDA funds Texas A&M AgriLife Extension West Texas Rangeland Conservation Projects

May 24, 2023 by casey.matzke

Four separate projects have been funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative with West Texas Rangelands Involvement! These projects will combine the expertise of Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service to provide livestock producer support and increase the use of conservation principles on grazing lands.

[Read more…] about USDA funds Texas A&M AgriLife Extension West Texas Rangeland Conservation Projects

Filed Under: Beef Cattle, Brush Management, Conservation Practices, Grazing Management, Prescribed Burning Tagged With: brush management, Conservation Practices, prescribed burning

Rangeland Analysis Platform Virtual Training

May 3, 2023 by casey.matzke

Rangeland Analysis Platform, also known as RAP, have you heard of it? It is a platform that was created with a partnership between the University of Montana (UM), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the U.S. Department of Interior (DOI).

[Read more…] about Rangeland Analysis Platform Virtual Training

Filed Under: Brush Management, Conservation Practices, Grazing Management, Range Concepts, RAP Tagged With: brush management, Conservation Practices, grazing management, Range Concepts, RAP

Central Texas Fuels Reduction Grant

April 12, 2023 by casey.matzke

The Central Texas Fuels Reduction Grant has officially opened! This an opportunity for Central Texas Landowners to apply for the SFAM Mechanical Fuels Reduction Grant to help reduce risks posed to their property by wildfire. 

[Read more…] about Central Texas Fuels Reduction Grant

Filed Under: Brush Management, Conservation, Conservation Practices, Prescribed Burning, Wildfires Tagged With: brush management, Conservation, Grants, Prescribed Burn, Wildfires

Published to Pasture…Soil Health!

July 11, 2019 by morgan.treadwell

Soil Health…kind of catchy, right?!  I agree.  And, so do thousands of other range managers and landowners.  It’s the buzz word of the century and it’s here to stay.  So what do we know about soil health and how the heck can our ranchers use it?

Today, we will be looking at 2 relatively recent articles on soil health.  First, “Usable Science: Soil Health” written by Justin Derner, Chuck Stanley, and Chad Ellis.  Secondly, we will look at “Soil Health as a Transformational Change Agent for US Grazing Lands Management” written by Justin Derner, Alexander Smart, Theodore Toombs, Dana Larsen, Rebecca McCulley, Jeff Goodwin, Scott Sims, and Leslie Roche.

Usable Science- Soil Health 

Why is soil health on the minds of every range manager these days?  Easy.  Dust Bowl of the 1930s was a benchmark event that changed every single range, crop, and land-man’s way of thinking.  Total game changer.  As Derner and others stated, “The 1930s Dust Bowl remains entrenched in the memories of land managers for how drought can lead to widespread wind erosion.”  I couldn’t agree more.  As range managers, we seek to learn from our mistakes – not repeat them.  So now we have the most talented scientists working out the details of a very complex, obscure, and complicated science of the physical, chemical, and biological components of soil and how applicable conservation practices increase production, capacity, and ecosystem services through enhanced soil water holding capacity, appropriate nutrient cycling, and greater resiliency to weather variability and predicted climate changes. For example, utilizing novel experiments with adaptive grazing management wherein short “pulses” of grazing with a large herd followed by rest periods of more than 1 year provides experimental platforms to evaluate the efficacy of soil health monitoring efforts.  Can I get an amen from the range gospel choir?!  Wahoo!!! It’s about dang time!

To summarize what the Rangelands article is talking about, here we go:

#1. What are the effects of conservation practices (e.g., prescribed grazing, prescribed fire, and brush management) on the chemical, physical, and biological components of soil health?

#2. Can the chemical, physical, and biological components of soil health be used as “early indicators” of phase, transition, and/or threshold shifts in plant communities for state-and-transition models to enhance ecological site descriptions?

#3. How can the chemical, physical, and biological components of soil health be enhanced through adaptive management to increase the resilience of soils to weather variability and changing climate?

#4. How can the soil health tool kit to provide more robust and broad assessments of soil health and/or monitoring of the chemical, physical, and biological components for land managers in a timely and responsive manner to facilitate adaptive management be expanded?

 

Fast forward to our next article, Soil Health as a Transformational Change Agent for US Grazing Lands Management and now is where we get to the cool nerd stuff. Current soil health is an opportunity not to focus on improvement of soil health on lands where potential is limited but rather to forward science-based management on grazing lands via

#1. Refocusing grazing management on fundamental ecological processes (water and nutrient cycling and energy flow) rather than maximum short-term profit or livestock production

#2. Emphasizing goal-based management with adaptive decision making informed by specific objectives incorporating maintenance of soil health at a minimum and directly relevant monitoring attributes

#3. Advancing holistic and integrated approaches for soil health that highlight social-ecological-economic inter-dependencies of these systems, with particular emphasis on human dimensions

#4. Building cross-institutional partnerships on grazing lands’soil health to enhance technical capacities of students,land managers, and natural resource professionals

#5. Creating across-region, living laboratory network of case studies involving producers using soil health as part of their grazing land management. Explicitly incorporating soil health into grazing management and the matrix of ecosystems services provided by grazing lands provides transformational opportunities by building tangible links between natural resources stewardship and sustainable grazing management, as well as providing paths to reach broader audiences and enhance communications among producers,customers, and the general public.

 

Now, we can really jump up and say “hallelujah!!!!”

This is what their vision looks like:

My favorite part, is “Re-focus grazing management on fundamental ecological processes.”  What a concept!!

Better yet!  There is an app for that!  Check out LandPKS on your smartphone device and start collecting data on LandInfo, LandCover, and LandManagment!

Please click here for more information regarding this remarkable tool!

Believe it or not, Soil Health is more fun and easy than you think!  We just overcomplicated it!

Filed Under: Brush Management, Grazing Management, Prescribed Burning, Publications Tagged With: #grazing #ranchmanagement #brush #grasslands, brush management, fire effects, grass production, Grazing, prescribed fire

Outside the Fire…Dr. Butch Taylor

July 31, 2018 by morgan.treadwell

If you have ever heard of prescribed burning in Texas, then I am sure you have heard of thee Dr. Butch Taylor.  He goes by Dr. Charles A. Taylor, Jr. on his numerous publications (I’m telling you folks, he wrote the book, literally).  Butch is a tremendous friend, mentor, and colleague and I hope you enjoy his story as much as I have.  We could all learn something from Butch.

How did you get introduced to fire? Fire was first presented to me as a viable range management option when I was in 4-H and involved in range judging.  Later, as an undergraduate majoring in range science, fire was again presented as a viable range management option.  However, both of these experiences were more hypothetical and involved no practical application of fire to the landscape.  In fact, in the mid-and late 1960s, fire was viewed as being harmful to the ecosystem by the general public and even by some range professionals.  Also, growing up in a “dry-climate”  (Pecos County), I was not able to experience or view any evidence that fire was something that could be used in range management (I never saw any evidence of a fire-culture and didn’t know if it existed).   

Surprisingly, the army provided my first experience of the benefits of fire.  I entered the Army in 1968 and was sent to Fort Sill for artillery training.  I’m sure I was the only range science major in the class.  A big part of our training was live-firing artillery into the impact zone.  They would load us in trucks and transport us to the firing range where we would be assigned a target and we would have to send in fire missions via radio.  This training occurred during July and August and it was extremely hot and dry.  Coming from the Trans-Pecos region of Texas, I had never seen grass production like what was produced at Fort Sill (i.e., tall grasses such as big bluestem, Indian grass, little bluestem, etc.).  

One extremely hot, dry, windy day, while firing artillery rounds into the impact zone a fire broke out.  The wind was blowing towards us and even though there was some distance between the impact zone and our location, it was obvious the fire would be upon us quickly.  The Colonel in charge of the exercise quickly gave the order to load-up in the trucks and get out of the area.  While everyone else was scrambling to get into the trucks, I stood and watched in amazement as the fire traveled across the landscape with flame lengths over 20-feet high.  My attention was quickly brought back to the issue at hand as the Colonel screamed in my ear to get my b_ _ on the truck, right now! 

Later I asked the Colonel how often they had fires during the training sessions.  He commented he had been stationed at Fort Sill for over 5-years and his recollection was that it had burned every summer.

Later I was stationed at Fort Hood, where I observed the same results of frequent fire as I observed at Fort Sill.  And, then I spent a year in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam and while most of the land was used for rice-farming, there were zones where farming was not used due to frequent and intense combat.   These areas were dominated by tall grasses which burned frequently during the hot, dry- season.   

Because of these observations in the Army, I started setting fires under hot, dry conditions as soon as I got in a position of authority.     

How early do you start planning for a burn? There are general guidelines that can be used in the process for prescribed burning.  A general guideline is to start prescribed burn planning 2-3 years prior to implementation of the burn.  The application of prescribed fire is not rocket science, but it can be complicated.  One major reason for this is that actual burn days are limited within any particular year, and the burn plan should be planned and developed well ahead of the actual fire (e.g., wait until optimum weather conditions and then be in a position to pull the trigger at a moment’s notice).   Preparation of the burn unit is also time consuming.  For example, fire-line preparation results in piles of brush along the fine-line.  Brush piles contain large amounts of 10-hour fuels.  Diameter of these fuels range in size from ¼” to 1” in diameter.  They are light enough to be picked up by the energy of the fire but large enough to continue burning a considerable distance downwind (i.e., I’ve experienced spot fires starting 600-feet downwind from brush piles).  Brush piles should be burned during safe conditions.  Bottom line is that a comprehensive burn plan may contain over 20-important items that have to be developed, planned, and explained prior to the burn; this takes time. 

What’s most unique about a post-fire environment? The answer to this is somewhat a function of the goals and objectives of the landowner.  For example, if a manager is mostly trying to improve cattle production then fires that reduce woody plant cover and increase grass are usually favored.  If the major noxious plants are perceived to be prickly pear, ashe juniper, and Eastern red cedar, then starting prescribed fires during dry periods in the summer time can have drastic effects on the vegetative complex.  Even with dense stands of juniper and pear these plants can actually be killed with the right kind of fire (i.e., reclamation burns conducted during drought).  This practice of growing season burning has the most potential for increase grass production in the Edwards Plateau.

If the goal is to improve forage quality with some suppression of woody plant growth and/or mitigate wildfire frequency and intensity, then burns conducted during the dormant season under mild conditions might be the choice.  Actually, very few species of plants are killed by fire.  Most plants are well adapted to fire and respond in a positive manner following fire.  Fire is not a one-time tool.

In your opinion, what makes a successful fire? Any fire that meets the goals and objectives of a land manager is a successful fire.  The goals and objectives should be clearly explained in the burn plan and a prescription developed to meet those goals and objectives.  It should also be remembered that grass is the major component of the fuel to carry the fire.  And that grass can be used for forage or fuel.  So a successful fire not only requires a comprehensive burn plan but also effective grazing management.

Who or what would you never burn without? I would never burn without a weather forecast.  Over the years I’ve seen more people get into trouble starting fires without having a comprehensive weather forecast (this includes prescribed burns, burning brush piles, trash burning, etc.).  A close second would be a good comprehensive insurance policy.

Filed Under: Brush Management, Grazing Management, Prescribed Burn Associations, Prescribed Burning Tagged With: brush management, prescribed burn associations, prescribed fire, RX Fire

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to Next Page »

Recent Posts

  • Grasslands are the Forgotten Ecosystem
  • Integrated Pest Management for Woody Encroachment
  • 100 Years of Data to Identify the Right Time to Regenerate Perennial Grasses
  • Prescribed Burn Lessons Learned
  • SRM Multidisciplinary Rangeland Ecosystem Services Report

Categories

  • 4-H Range Contests
  • Beef Cattle
  • Brush Management
  • Carbon Credits
  • Carbon Markets
  • Conservation
  • Conservation Practices
  • Drought Management
  • El Niño
  • Events
  • Goats
  • Grazing Management
  • Meet A County Extension Agent
  • Plant ID
  • Podcast
  • Prescribed Burn Associations
  • Prescribed Burning
  • Publications
  • Range Concepts
  • RAP
  • Sheep
  • Society for Range Management
  • Soil
  • Targeted Grazing
  • Uncategorized
  • Why I Ranch
  • Wild Pigs
  • Wildfire
  • Wildfires
  • Woody Encroachment
  • Youth Range Workshop

Archives

Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service
Texas A&M University System Member
  • Compact with Texans
  • Privacy and Security
  • Accessibility Policy
  • State Link Policy
  • Statewide Search
  • Veterans Benefits
  • Military Families
  • Risk, Fraud & Misconduct Hotline
  • Texas Homeland Security
  • Texas Veteran's Portal
  • Equal Opportunity
  • Open Records/Public Information