Residents may expect smoky conditions from prescribed burn
A prescribed burn affecting approximately 100 acres in Northern Hays County today will be a source of visible smoke that residents should be aware of, taking necessary precautionary measures when driving in the vicinity.
According to the Austin Water Wildland Conservation Division that oversees prescribed burning on what are termed water quality protection lands, this burn is likely to create smoke that will be visible during the day from State Highway 45, FM 1826 and RR 967.
Austin Water Public Information Specialist Senior Erik Luna said, “Austin Water is responsible for leading the prescribed burn and has trained prescribed fire staff and a certified burn manager. Tomorrow’s crew [Thursday] will include partners from local fire departments and regional natural resource partners including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and The Nature Conservancy. All staff and assisting partners meet the National Wildfire Coordinating Group standards for the positions that they hold on the fireline.”
The acreage is part of the Prescribed Burning Program Water Quality Protection Lands, a program that is under the auspices of the city of Austin’s Wildland Conservation Division. This burn offers a preventive measure against uncontrolled wildfires that could affect Travis and Hays counties in the near future.
Luna said, “Before each prescribed burn on the Water Quality Protection Lands, land managers with Austin Water coordinate and communicate with Hays County emergency service districts and the Hays County Fire Marshal's Office. Hays County Fire Department staff are not directly serving on the fireline tomorrow, but we have conducted prescribed burns together in the past. The cross-department cooperation and partnerships are critical to the success of any fire operation.”
In the last two weeks with heat in the triple digits, the need to anticipate wildfires becomes even more necessary for large swaths of Texas. Hays and other counties only recently ended burn bans put in place when drought conditions were in the extreme. The past two weeks of intense heat have renewed fears that unmanaged brush could ignite. The spring rains did bring some balance to the system, but triple digit heat concerns emergency management personnel both from a human and an environmental perspective.
Yesterday, the city of San Marcos announced it would move into Stage 3 water restrictions on July 2 in response to lowering levels of spring flow in the Edwards Aquifer.
According to local officials, wildfires are considered as routine events in Hays County. Area firefighters train consistently to handle wildfires. The Hays County Office of Emergency Management is in communication with all of the Emergency Services Districts and fire departments within the county, taking a proactive stand against the dangers of wildfires here.
The need for prescribed burning may seem counterintuitive during such a period of intense temperatures. But recent catastrophic wildfires in Canada, for example, have generated smoke that continues to plague the U.S. causing air quality to pivot downwards across the East Coast and now the Midwest, with Wisconsin posting the worst air in the nation Tuesday. Stopping a fire from ever starting is the goal of much of the prescribed burns in Central Texas, officials stated. Many residents of Central Texas recall vividly the wildfire that started due to high winds on Sept. 4, 2011 that covered 32,000 acres in Bastrop County, destroying about 1,600 homes, resulting in two fatalities.
The conservation division overseeing today’s planned burn also manages in excess of 40,000 acres located from the northwest tip of Travis County down to Highway 150 in Hays County, officials stated. The burn today by trained personnel is designed to attempt to properly maintain the density of brush on that acreage as well as to promote native grass growth and wildflowers on that land, Luna said.
Land management that includes this kind of prescribed burn may also contribute to an environment that protects groundwater levels in both Hays and Travis counties.
During a prescribed burn event held in February 2023, in a press release from the city of Austin, Matt Lore, a spokesperson for the Austin Water Wildland Conservation Division, stated, “Prescribed fire is a key tool used to manage this land and improves the quality and quantity of groundwater entering the Edwards Aquifer. Beyond our core mission of improving groundwater quality in Central Texas, the use of prescribed fire also improve landscape resilience, promoting a diverse and vibrant ecosystem above the aquifer.”
Just as Hays County and especially the city of San Marcos are dependent on the Edwards Aquifer–one of the nation’s most productive– for much of its water resources, Austin sits above portions of the Aquifer, too. For Travis County, it is what is called the Barton Springs segment that may drive burn decision making.
Luna said, “The section that has been selected for tomorrow’s [Thursday] prescribed burn is part of Austin’s Water Quality Protection Lands. This land was purchased with bond funds to protect the quality and quantity of water reaching the Barton Springs segment of the Edwards Aquifer. The Barton Springs segment supplies water to more than 60,000 private wells in the region. Research shows that grasslands and savannas are the most effective vegetation types to meet these goals. The majority of the Water Quality Protection Lands are being restored to or maintained as grasslands and savannas, which requires the integration of multiple land management treatments including prescribed burns.”
Barton Springs represents a major discharge for the Edwards Aquifer. It was in 1998 that the city of Austin first proposed bonds, later approved by voters, for the purchase and management of land that would support longterm water quality protection.
According to its website, the mission of the Water Quality Protection Lands program is “to purchase land and conservation easement in the Barton Springs contributing and recharge zone to provide for the conservation and maintain the safety of part of the city's water supply. The objective is to produce the optimum level of clean, high quality water from these lands to recharge the Barton Springs segment of the Edwards Aquifer. Currently, the WQPL program manages more than 28,000 acres.”
For those in the vicinity of the burn today, strict protocols are in place that take into account relative humidity, wind and fuel moisture. This limits the number of days when a prescribed burn may be attempted, and these conditions will be monitored even up to the start of today’s burn to maintain the highest level of confidence that the burn will remain under control.
Recent rain in April and May did provide for the area having a good moisture content for this burn. Crews will start the burn earlier to take advantage of lower morning temperatures.
It is estimated that the fire will burn for approximately six hours and crews will be back on site for at least seven days to monitor the area following the burn. Officials stated that safety is always the “primary consideration when planning and implementing any prescribed burn.”
Those with any kind of breathing issues should be aware that prescribed fires do release “significant amounts of emissions, primarily small particulate matter.” As fires are generally a normal and natural occurrence in the environment, the nature of a prescribed fire, though, allows crews to maintain better control of when, where and how much emissions may be produced. Crew will monitor wind direction to minimize smoke on roads and neighboring communities as much as possible.
According to Texas law, all regulations identified in the Outdoor Burning Rules are set to be met and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is notified before each burn. No burning is allowed on what are designated as Ozone Action Days.
While officials stated they recognize smoke is a nuisance, as it is planned for today, the expectation is that it will not be a health risk. They do note that all households within at least a half-mile of the burn unit are notified before the burn by written notification and by staff who will give an immediate notification prior to the burn start. Residents will have signs posted in their neighborhoods and drivers will have signage on the highway to remind everyone that is a controlled burn. Schools are also kept in the loop regarding the burn. and directly communicate with sensitive populations such as schools. Finally, signs are posted on the roads to notify drivers of the potential for smoke. To sign up for email notifications about future prescribed burns, please visit bit.ly/ rxburnnotification.
Officials stated that if a home borders a natural area, what is generally termed a wildland urban interface, wildfires are an expected risk. For those who live within a mile of a natural area, that residence is in an ember zone. Homes in the ember zone are considered at risk from any wildfire embers, which may trigger fires just as easily as the blaze itself. Hays County officials caution that recent fires have destroyed residences by windblown embers. The county encourages residents to have a Wildfire Action Plan for homes and businesses in these zones, especially.
