N RANCHING
atural Resources
spond to many wildfi res. Tools like TxWRAP helped the agency deploy its limited resources to parts of the state where it appeared the need would be greatest. “We call it ‘prepositioning,’” says Tom Boggus.
“When the capacity of a volunteer department or local fi refi ghters is exceeded, they call for assistance from us and we will already be familiar with the situation because of the technology. We will be ready to move to that area with resources, so our response time will be greatly reduced.”
We have a bias for action.
and other drought-related conditions. They calculate the KBDI daily for every 4 kilometers across Texas. Spencer says that while everybody has access to the Index, the primary users of the tool are the counties. He explains, “There are laws on the books that al-
low them to restrict outdoor burning, and/or restrict certain types of fi reworks where fi reworks can be sold, based on whether or not drought conditions exist in any part of their county.”
We put task forces out there with bulldozers, engines and maintainers.
TFS keeps adding to its offerings. In addition to
training its own personnel on how to use the tools, Spencer says they are hoping the TxWRAP revisions and upgrades in the fi re danger maps will allow them to present the maps at a higher-resolution level. Some of this will be facilitated by the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which now offer gridded weather products whose data can be easily retrieved and related to specifi c geographic points. “The amount and the type of data that’s becoming
available are just amazing,” he says. “From where we were 10 years ago to where we are now, folks like NASA, NOAA and others are just making more infor- mation available to us.”
Prepositioning resources The fi re season in 2015 was unusual. After years
of drought, Texas experienced good spring rains — in fact, record rains in May and June — only to have the eastern 2/3 of the state revert to drought until mid- October. The rains had produced plenty of grass, which the drought turned into fuel. As a result, TFS had to re-
48 The Cattleman February 2016 Boggus is grateful to the Texas Legislature, which
in 2009 began to help TFS with a grants program to train volunteers. Since then, they have added 150 new fi refi ghters and the equipment for them to use. Another $25 million per year was approved in the last session to pay for additional equipment and volunteer fi refi ghter training. The Legislature also sets the agency’s budget. “You
know, we have 167 million acres to protect, so it really makes a huge difference when you have the people,” Boggus says. “Our (TFS) fi refi ghters primarily went to central and West Texas, where they didn’t have a full-time force, and we put task forces out there with bulldozers, engines and maintainers. When those folks call us and need us, we don’t want to show up with just 1 piece of equipment. We need to show up with enough steel on the ground to make a real impact on the situation that they’re dealing with, and the confi gu- ration of these task forces really helped us to do that.” He praised TSCRA again for supporting the TFS cause
in Austin. “The Cattle Raisers have been very helpful in helping us to get the personnel and the equipment that we need to make a difference across Texas.” Texas is among the leading states in losses to natural
disasters, along with California and Florida. “We can have fi res in one part of the state and fl oods in another,” says Boggus. “You can either wring your hands and say, ‘We’re just too small, there’s nothing we can do about it’ or, as I used to describe our agency, not only do we have a service mentality, but we have a bias for action. We are going to do something, and we are go- ing to fi nd ways to do it. “We also look for new and innovative ways to get
the job done. Knowing that you don’t have that many personnel, you have to be able to leverage them, and I think we do a good job of that. This is game-changing stuff, and I think it really makes a difference.”
thecattlemanmagazine.com
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