Purpose
The goal is to protect high-risk communities and aid in ecosystem restoration by utilizing prescribed fire to consume excess vegetation before it contributes to catastrophic wildfire.
Practices
Prescribed burning and implementation of fuels breaks via dozers, maintainers or plows.
Eligibility
Texas private landowners within communities located in the Panhandle, Northwest, West and South Texas
Application
The online application period is open in July 1 through Sept. 1.
About
The Plains Prescribed Fire Grant helps communities through funding for prescribed burning to reduce hazardous fuels in and around communities.
Treatment areas will be near communities in the Panhandle, Northwest, West, and South Texas (See map for eligible counties). These areas are at the highest risk of loss from wind driven wildfire.
Priority will be given to treatments sites that provide protection to the highest risk communities, based on Texas Wildfire Risk Assessment Portal, located near homes, and contain ecosystems that will benefit from prescribed fire.
Priority will also be given to landowners that were approved in the previous year’s grant process but were unable to complete their burn. The prescribed burn must be completed by a private or commercial Certified and Insured Prescribed Burn Manager.
Maximum total reimbursement per recipient
Grant recipients will be reimbursed actual per acre costs associated with conducting the prescribed burn not to exceed the maximum reimbursement rate of $30 per acre. No cost shares are involved with this grant program.
Application process
The prescribed burn must be completed by a Certified and Insured Prescribed Burn Manager. For more resources on prescribed fire and burn plans, click here.
We will supply the grant recipient with an approval to burn letter when all TFS required paperwork has been completed by recipient. Any burning on an approved project prior to receiving an approval to burn letter from TFS may not be eligible for reimbursement.
Applicants must:
- Complete all landowner information.
- Complete all contractor information, including the vendor’s TDA license number.
- Include a comprehensive burn plan along with the “Burn Unit Location” information. The burn boss must sign and date their submitted burn plan. See the Texas Department of Agriculture website for details of a comprehensive burn plan.
- Latitude and longitude of burn unit (degrees/minutes/seconds).
- County and physical address of burn unit location or distance and direction to nearest intersection.
- Burn unit boundary map showing proposed burn perimeter, acres to be burned, coordinates, and aerial or satellite imagery as background.
- Box must be checked certifying that the applicant is the landowner or has the expressed permission of the landowner to submit the application on their behalf.
Additional information
- Burn units that received payments in the current grant year are not eligible for funding in the following year.
- Priority will be given to burn units approved in the previous year’s grant process but unable to complete their burn project.
- Burn units that were selected for funding and failed to complete their burns two years in a row will not be eligible for funding the following year.
- Multiple applications may be submitted per individual, but the grant is competitive, and selection will be based on the goal of reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfire near communities. Name on application, grant agreement, and invoice for payment must match. If a private certified and insured burn manager applies and conducts a burn on their own property, the invoice to the landowners should represent actual expenses incurred for the burn.
- We may contact and speak directly with the recipient’s burn vendor about burn dates after the recipient has received the approval to burn notification letter.
Approved applicants
- All grant documents including the agreement must be completed and signed by the applicant and approved by Texas A&M Forest Service before the prescribed burn can take place.
- We will make a short site documentation visit and take pre-burn photos of vegetation condition along with a final post burn inspection and photos of vegetation after the burn.
- We will supply the recipient with an approval to burn letter when all paperwork has been completed by recipient. Any burning on an approved project prior to receiving this notice may forfeit recipient’s prescribed burn funding.
- No exchange of land tracts will be allowed. Reimbursement is made only upon an approved contracted land tract.
- The recipient’s burn contractor should notify us at least 24 hours prior to the prescribed burn taking place. This notification does not represent: agency approval of the safety of the project, any review of environmental conditions, or liability for the burn manager’s decision to conduct the prescribed burn.
- Following the prescribed burn taking place, the recipient’s burn contractor should notify us and provide the number of acres that were treated and will be billed to the landowner. We will conduct a post-burnt inspection promptly to verify the treatment acreage.
For more resources on prescribed fires and burn bans, click here.
View our terms of application here.