Prescribed Burn Alliance of Texas
"Taking the WILD out of Fire"
MEMBER RESOURCES
Resource info to help plan your Rx burn and complete your pre- and post-burn plans, including burn plan templates, mapping, smoke management, weather, fuel moisture, useful cell phone apps, report post-burns, burn schools, rules and regulations.
FOLLOW YOUR PBA'S SPECIFIC GUIDELINES AND POLICIES
BURN PLAN TEMPLATES
BLANK BURN PLAN TEMPLATES
​
​
Fillable form blank burn plans: click on a blue link below, save the form, then open to complete it. Save your plan to print or email per your PBA's requirements.
​
Edwards Plateau Prescribed Burning Assoc
Handy Q&A to determine burning conditions
Prescribed Burn Alliance of Texas
Texas Parks & Wildlife Dept
Texas Dept of Agriculture
USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service
US Fish & Wildlife
Or click on
​
​
for pdf version
MAPPING
Map My Property
The Texas A&M Forest Service provides the Map My Property application for locating and mapping your property; insert your address and map it.
​
​
GOOGLE EARTH: if using Google Earth for making maps, you must also use a companion program called GE Path to calculate acreage and display GPS points.
​
SMOKE MANAGEMENT
BLUE SKY SMOKE MODEL
AND OTHER TOOLS
​
​
​
​
​
​
https://tools.airfire.org/playground/v3/emissionsinputs.php
​
​
WEATHER
National Weather Service Forecast
WEATHER FORECAST INFO
Click on the links below
Note: after clicking on links, change the weather page to your own zip code or location, then save the site/link to your computer.
National Weather Service Forecast
FUEL MOISTURE
Change to your own location on the map, or allow location on your device
The Predictive Services Department is responsible for the scientific assessment of environmental conditions across the state as it relates to wildfire risk, wildfire danger and drought from data collected through live fuel moisture sampling and weather data collected from Remote Automatic Weather Stations.
Fire weather forecasts, fire risk assessments and drought indices are some of the tools that may assist in critical decisions; volunteer fire departments will benefit from the services described under the FD Assistance link and the state-wide mutual aid plan is readily available.
MOISTURE CONTENT
Look up a value for your county using the Wildland Fire Assessment System (WFAS) website for green moisture and dead moisture for 1, 10, 100 and 1000 hr fuels. Huge database; some stations take measurements every two weeks.
​
It can still be best to perform your own moisture content analysis, since conditions can vary greatly over the entire county.
​
How to Determine Moisture Content
Sam Jetton
​
Pull leaves off a number of junipers. Leaves should be 3-4 feet off the ground. I would select from all sides of trees. It is imperative that no woody material be included in the sample. Weigh the sample. Remember to subtract bag weight. Microwave the sample. I will usually microwave for 1.5 minutes and then re-weigh the sample. I then continue to nuke the sample for 30 seconds. I have also found it helps to mix the sample periodically so the lower leaves are brought up so they can dry more easily. Always re-weigh when it comes out of the microwave. Once you get the same weight then you are finished.
The equation to compute green leaf moisture is:
Green Weight – Dry weight/Dry Weight X 100
You can wind up with over 100% glm with this approach. You can use the same procedure to determine liveoak leaf moisture and what the moisture content is of the grass.
​
USEFUL CELL PHONE APPS
Apps are available on App Stores
RainDrop
Rainfall estimator for any location in Texas
Wildland
Fire behavior
Watch Duty
Real time fire locations in the U.S. and noted as wildfire or Rx fires
Rx Burn Entry Form
App to record and submit burn information to Oklahoma State University database
AirNow
Real time air quality
REPORT POST-BURNS
Please report all completed prescribed burns
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf01u-KlLgLxKt5fhX2wvzogQDYI44OQ5Cb0wnszPG-zHQ7qw/viewform
For research purposes, Oklahoma State University/OK Extension and Oklahoma PBA maintain a comprehensive database of prescribed burn activity and safety records. No personal information is required.
BURN SCHOOLS
Texas Department of Agriculture Prescribed Burning School
https://www.texasagriculture.gov/Home/Production-Agriculture/Prescribed-Burn-Program/Prescribed-Burning-Training
RULES AND REGULATIONS
Check Out Prescribed Fire Education and Training Materials Including:
Spotfires, the 40% Rule by John Weir
Prescribed Fire Safety by Butch Taylor
Rules, Regulations and Liability:
On-site Brush Pile Burning in Texas
Prescribed Burning: Liability Considerations
Texas Open Burning Rules and Regulations
​
