Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Fire in Texas

I had a little fire at the ranch Thursday afternoon. It got about 60 acres.

Fire can be a scary thing, glad nobody was hurt or to much proeprty damaged. Did anybody come out to fight it, or was it just you and the tractor? Fire ban here in Denton county, and lots of people ignoring it since it is now spring and everybody thinks spring is a wet time.

I heard about the big fire down there and hoped nobody on here was badly affected. A number of homes were lost IIRC. I hope nothing was damaged other than some underbrush.

You have 60 of the 120,000 acres that burnt. Still no rain on the horizon. I don't have any mesquites so don't know much about them. Mine are all post and blackjack oak. Will the mesquites come back? Doesn't seem to have hurt the pear.

Jeff, we still have a burn ban in Montague County and I think everybody is pretty well obeying it.

That burned area will look might nice shortly after the first good rain!...Scary as can be when it's flaring though!!!

My place burnt off about 20 years ago. It was in the winter with some 60 mph winds. It looked terrible but when Spring arrived 99% of the trees rebounded and everything greened up beautifully. The under brush and junk on the ground were gone.

OTOH, we had some huge fires last year in my area and mature oaks and mesquite were just about 100% lost. Those areas won't come back for decades.

I think the difference may be whether the sap is up or down.

Yea, the Cisco volunteers were out there but the guy accross the hwy has a 800 acre place and more money than I do so they spent most of their time over there. They did come over and get the hot spots on my place but I did the rest. I don't have water out there yet other than a storage tank so I did the best I could. It'll be nice if we ever get some rain.

They think an 18 wheeler blew a tire on the hwy is what caused it.

We're getting an number of wildfires here in northern VA. Even with some rain we've gotten, with the low humidity and high winds, it's made fires easy to start. On my way to work I go by a large area long that interstate that is torched and a couple friends of mine had 4 houses and 800 acres burn up in their neighborhood.

I watched some of the news yesterday that discussed the wildfires in Texas and was hoping that no one here was effected. Wildfires are very scary and very real for us in California. Although it's sad to see your vegetation burned, I'm glad you didn't lose family or friends Cisco.

Thanks guys. I was very lucky although it didn't seem like it at the time.

Dave:

I've seen mesquite burned in Ca., and it greened right up the next year once it got moisture again. I believe it all depends on how hot the fire was, and how long it burned in one spot. I believe fire is a good tool if it is used correctly.

Grasslands in the midwest are burned every couple of years to remove unwanted plants and keep trees from getting a foothold.

We're going to burn a friends cattail patch today if the wind doesn't get too strong so he can more effectively use herbacide on the new shoots that pop up. Last year he wanted to keep the cattails, but this year he's seeing more muskrat activity on his dam. Plus the cattails are starting to spread too far. We will also be burning his native grass pasture when the conditions are right. It's so thick that you have a hard time walking thru it. It's been 2 or 3 years since it was burned last.

Fire will kill most small mesquite tree seedling, but not a larger one unless it is a hot fire or it has some rot that the fire can get into. Keeps the cedar under control as well. We have all this lovely scrub brush instead of grasses because we put out fires now instead of starting them.

Fire is a very natural thing is most parts of the country. Many areas of the country look nothing like they did 500 years ago because man no longer allows fire to take it affects on the ecosystem. Controlled burns actually make things much safer as they are controlled rather than the ooopsies that lead to nasty uncontrolled wild fires. The wildlife sure do seem to enjoy areas that have been burned when they start to come back. Just not fun having your house, outbuildings and vehicles burn up in the fire or be fearful that you're gonna burn up too!

I would love to do a controlled burn but am absolutely gutless when it comes to matches and wood. I've seen the result too many times.

Controlled burn in our area is an oxymoron. I think they train new firefighters out here.

Make sure firebreaks are in place, don't burn if wind is high, burn against the wind and burn small areas at a time so it doesn't get outta hand.

The pucker factor is high when doing it, and I don't relax until the day after when I know there aren't any hot spots that can rekindle. We just torched cattails at a friends pond the other day. There was a dry grassy area right along side of them, and we were able to keep the fire contained to just the dead cattails. This will make it easier for him to control the new ones that pop up. He's tired of having the "buffet open" sign out for the muskrats. They are starting to call the dam home - not good!

I was there last weekend and the grass id already coming back up. I knew it would but it's only been a week. The deer and hogs are going to love it.