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State Parks Prescribed Fire Program Hits High Gear

On a cool, clear, not-too-dry and not-too-wet winter day, dozens of firefighters from the Texas Forest Service, San Antonio and Helotes fire departments, and TPWD's wildland fire program donned canary-yellow, flame-retardant suits and set ablaze almost 200 acres of overgrown brush at Government Canyon State Natural Area. It had been a long time coming. The park's first prescribed burn was deemed a "tremendous success" by GCSNA assistant superintendent Trey Cooksey.

"We're trying to bring back the land to the way it was before European settlement by reducing the woody species, so we get coverage of about 30 percent savanna and trees," Cooksey explained to a San Antonio television station reporter on hand to capture the "hot" action. "We want to reduce the highly flammable fuels in case of a future wildfire and improve habitat for native species."

Though prescribed burns in Texas state parks have been going on for some time, the State Parks Division now has in place a more cohesive State Parks Wildland Fire Management Plan outlining operating procedures and how each park can develop its own plan how to best use prescribed fire, as well as benefit from wildfire ignition should it occur. Having such plans in place is more important than ever in light of recent wildfires in California and the Texas Panhandle that caused so much damage.

In the past five years, TPWD has stepped up efforts to minimize the potential impact of wildfires on state lands by conducting a series of prescribed burns in state parks and wildlife management areas. The State Parks Division alone has trained some 200 firefighters according to national standards and those of the Texas Forest Service, a key partner in helping implement TPWD's fire program. Jeff Sparks serves as State Parks Wildland Fire Program manager, overseeing fire activities with regional fire program coordinators Mike Lloyd, Hi Newby and Greg Creacy.

During 2007, according to Sparks, roughly 5,000 acres in more than a dozen state parks were burned. He says state park firefighting crews finished the year in a flourish, burning more than 1,800 acres at Devil's Sinkhole, Kickapoo Cavern and Colorado Bend during mid-December. Three new $125,000 fire engines purchased with grant monies are on their way, too, to help state parks firefighters with their plans to burn on roughly 30 sites in 2008.

The payoff for park visitors? "Where we've burned," Sparks said, "they should notice more open space and more native grasses, allowing them to see more wildlife and more wildflowers."