Firebreak Can Protect CRP Acres, Grasslands

Temple, Texas, March 6, 2008 – With a majority of Texas counties under a burn ban due to dry conditions, landowners with Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acres or other pastures with an abundance of grass should consider placing firebreaks around their property.

“With all of the rain last year, we had more grass growth than we typically have had on CRP,” said Micky Woodard, conservation division chief, Texas Farm Service Agency (FSA). “That left us with an abundance of grass that has created high fuel loads all across Texas.”

With dry weather conditions and risk of wildfire so high, officials with FSA and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) are urging landowners to take steps to protect their land and homes from wildfire.

“Managing grass fuels is very important right now,” said Kent Ferguson, NRCS state rangeland management specialist in Temple. “Installing firebreaks might be the best thing a landowner can do right now until weather and moisture conditions improve.”

Firebreaks are strips of bare land or vegetation that retard fire. The area must be a minimum of 10 feet of bare soil or planted to an annual green winter crop that will not burn.
NRCS has a job sheet that provides more information about firebreaks and fireguards. It can be viewed at http://www.tx.nrcs.usda.gov/news/pubs.html under Rangeland and Grazing. Ferguson said that the job sheet illustrates ideal firebreak/fireguard situations, but that a fireguard cannot be created under a burn ban situation.

“A fireguard is an area at least 100 feet wide that has been burned under a prescribed burn plan,” he said. “The burned area reduces fuel load, which significantly reduces a wildfire’s energy.”

Ferguson said the best time to create firebreaks and fireguards is before you need them. “The only good thing about a wildfire season is that it makes us think about the need to prepare and do the best we can to protect our land and our homes,” he said.

For more information on firebreaks and using prescribed fire for preventing wildfires, contact your local NRCS office located in a USDA Service Center.

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