(2-7-08)
The out of control brush fire on the King Ranch got a lot of media attention. What started out as a routine burn quickly turned into an inferno. Butch Thompson is the wildlife and range manager for the King Ranch. He showed us why those controlled burns are needed. He showed us the results of a fire that broke out last month near ranch headquarters. You could see that green grass is now covering what once was full of dead dry grass and weeds. The field next to that one is full of that dry grass and brush. Mr. Thompson told us the controlled burns are something that's been done on the praries for hundreds of year, "this goes all the way back to the Indians who were indigenous to this area they used to burn the prairies off annually to cause fresh green grass for the animals they hunted so it's nothing new we've been doing it for many many years." Texas Forest Service officials agree that control burns help form a fire barrier for future grassfires and they fuel the development of nutrient rich grass for animals to graze. Maurice Martinez is with the Texas Forest Service out of Kingsville,"fire is the most effective tool to put out there for prescribed burning range management you start looking at the typical acreage that typical ranches have to manage it would take awhile with an implement to go out there and do some of this brush control on top of that it's costly." And in case of another fire in the area, state fire crews are standing by ready to step in to help the King Ranch or anyone else who finds themselves in real fire trouble. Michael Gibson Three News.