Oasis Pipeline Wildfire - What the Experts Recommend
In early November 2011, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the Texas Forest Service, and the South Llano Watershed Alliance, together with other experts from government agencies such as the Natural Resource Conservation Service, universities, NGO's, and private consultants convened a workshop at the branch campus of Texas Tech University at Junction for landowners to discuss the long-term impacts of wildfires and droughts, and to make recommendations for recovery.
Charred trunks, exploded rocks, and barren hillsides were all that were left after wildfires raged over 8,000 acres 13 miles south of Junction, in Kimble County during April of last year. Kimble County is located in the western part of the Edwards Plateau region of Texas, and includes the typical Hill Country landscape of rocky "cedar brake" hilly rangeland, along with some flats and river bottoms. The headwaters of the South Llano and James River (an important tributary of the Llano) are also found in Kimble County. Called the "Oasis Fire" because of its proximity to the Oasis natural gas pipeline that crosses the southern portion of the county, the fire left behind a devastated landscape that then had to endure five months of "exceptional drought", heat, and high winds before some modest rainfall arrived in September.
One of the most fascinating aspects about this workshop was the selection of information being presented, and the kinds of questions the audience (some still clearly traumatized by the event) wanted answered. The experts were challenged to provide a realistic assessment of the situation while still holding out hope that the land would eventually recover. The landowners naturally wanted to know how long it would take for their land to "grow back", and how much it would cost. The presenters repeatedly assured the audience that "The land will recover!" But when and as what, no one can say for sure. "Recovery" seemed to be measured differently according to the objectives of each agency, and the result was that the message given to this group was not altogether uniform. To the NRCS, recovery is measured by productivity and yield, according to when it's economically feasible to resume grazing. To TPWD, the land's health is indicated by the quality of habitat and the diversity of wildlife. To local government, it's property tax valuation and revenue from hunting, recreation, and ranching. The members of the South Llano Watershed Alliance expressed the one mutual over-arching metric: the availability and quality water in the river and it's life-giving springs, and the recharge capacity of the scorched parts of the Llano River watershed.
Government Officials Take a New Approach on Oasis Fire
Typically when discussing methods for "improving" large landscape scale projects, heavy equipment such as bulldozers and graders are thought of as the first tool of choice. It's easy to figure the cost of using such equipment, and they are able to cover a large area relatively quickly, with results that are immediately visible. Yet the long-term effects of dozer work under certain conditions are less often revisited or analyzed.
In contrast to this standard protocol, the experts at the Junction workshop repeatedly cautioned against the use of heavy equipment to "clean up" or modify landscapes on steep slopes damaged by the wildfires. The Hippocratic oath, "First, do no harm" was the mantra offered to landowners tempted to rush out and "do something" like pushing all the burned trunks into a pile and burning it again. Using a bulldozer on hilly terrain would only exacerbate an already fragile situation, because the fire had made the meager soils on the rolling hills unstable. By autumn, a few relatively small rains had caused the remaining thin topsoil to slide downhill into the draws and wet-weather creeks, and beyond, into the Llano River and Highland Lakes onto the Colorado River. The soil deposits are contributing to a change in the pH of the fresh water, with uncertain long-term consequences downstream. This is how the Oasis Fire affects urban dwellers hundreds of miles away who probably don't even know exactly where Kimble County is.
In the years right after WWII, thanks to strong representation on key committees in the U.S. Congress, generous amounts of federal funds were directed to Texas to help farmers and ranchers. In the Texas Hill Country, many people on marginal subsistence farms were still living in conditions not too different from those in the 19th Century. But with enthusiasm fueled by a repertoire of new technology from the war in the form of equipment like D-9 bulldozers, sprayers, powerful diesel tractors, root plows, and front-end loaders, landowners were encouraged by government agencies to level the tops of hills to make more grazing areas, to dig large ponds, to contour worn out fields in a washboard pattern to reduce run off, to channelize creeks, to criss-cross property with convenient roads, and to deep plow to grub out brush. But no equipment can replace soil, and soil was what the Hill Country lacked, because overgrazing had eliminated most of the grasses that had once held the soil on the hillsides. Although we now know that ecological restoration requires a flexible repertoire of tools – from machinery to the necessity of years of site-specific observation that leads to understanding of natural patterns, to simple hand labor - we persist in looking for the single answer, the quick fix, the single piece of equipment that will solve all our problems.
Fire has been a big game changer… I think the extreme results of 2011's wildfires and drought will result in changes in the landscape that are as profoundly different as when over-grazing during the 1870's to the early part of the 20th Century changed the Texas Hill Country from a grassland savannah to a cedar/mesquite dominated shrublands. What exactly will those changes look like and how long it will take are difficult to predict.
Sonora Experiment Station 1940 v 1993: 53 years to recover
How Can Landowners Hasten Recovery of Their Land?
Meanwhile, back at the workshop in Junction, what strategies for recovery were landowners given? Some experts recommended "Defer grazing for at least three years". "Grass will recover in two-three years", was another assertion. The photos above from the Sonora Expriment Station are a good example of how long it can really take in reality. The first picture, from the 1940's shows the extremely degraded condition the land was left in after decades of overgrazing. The second is from the same site, taken 53 years later, showing the return of little bluestem and other grasses.
After visiting some of the burn sites, those predictions seemed incredibly optimistic, given that most of the perennial grasses and the reserve of seeds in the soil were destroyed. How did these timeframes become established? And what if the clump grasses were thoroughly killed – not just burned back to the roots? How long does it take for sustainable grasslands to return?
The first objective for recovery was to somehow stabilize the soil and to reduce erosion. As heavy equipment would only exacerbate the fragile slopes, all techniques suggested required hand labor. At a series of excellent demonstration sites, people got a chance to see how effective these simple "third world" interventions could be using fiber mats, trincheras (or rack dams), and log erosion barriers.
I know from my own experience that these simple techniques work, and the observant landowner will have witnessed the effectiveness of how even a fallen log reduces runoff and collects soil, and how grasses seem thicker in areas when protected by fallen branches.
Yet when devastation is so extreme and covers such a large area, how much impact can these small handmade interventions achieve? As rural areas continue to empty out, where does the labor force come from to do this work over hundreds of acres? Without the hidden, cheap source of immigrant labor that ranchers have traditionally relied on to do the heavy work of setting fences, clearing brush and so on, how can new workers be recruited and trained for work that collectively has an impact on how our watersheds capture and store water? Could this need for skilled, strong labor (like those who work in national forests) be a source of employment in rural communities?
Bill Neiman and the South Llano Watershed Alliance has initiated an ambitious mission of .."encouraging land and water stewardship through collaboration, education, and community participation." Although 55% of Kimble County property, like many other rural Texas counties, is held by absentee landowners, the SLWA has formed a coalition of landowners who share expertise and unite in educating their neighbors on how they can best preserve and enhance the South Llano River and adjoining watersheds. As the Texas Hill Country becomes more fragmented, these labor-intensive efforts on smaller properties may not seem so daunting. Working with your hands to help heal degraded lands is always a good thing – no matter how small the measurable outcomes. By partnering with Mother Nature, you are forced to become more observant, more efficient, more in tune with the innumerable and mysterious forces that effect change, and you certainly become more humble.
