A course designed for licensed Texas Department of Agriculture, TDA, certified and insured burn managers is now online and available from the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service.
The program costs $100 and offers two TDA certified fire training units. Register at https://tx.ag/ContinuingFireTraining.
“This course covers updated regulations, gives an overview of brush pile burning procedures, and describes several tools used to effectively manage smoke from a burn,” said course instructor Morgan Treadwell, Ph.D., AgriLife Extension rangeland specialist, San Angelo.
The course will also explain how to use the Texas A&M Forest Service Smoke Management Plan.
Updates, education for burn managers
Upon completion of the course, burn managers will be able to:
- Identify the best management practices to support safe and effective prescribed burns.
- Describe the safety measures and identify the new tools to help manage smoke.
- Recognize the ecological role prescribed fire plays on Texas landscapes.
- Identify the proper brush pile burning method to determine an area’s attainment status.
- Describe Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, TCEQ, burning regulations and exceptions.
- Recognize TCEQ fire laws and burning rules.
“This online course is something I’ve been passionate about creating for a long time,” Treadwell said. “To offer the opportunity for burn managers statewide to continue their education and for us to be able to deliver the latest information in this format is something enormously important to prescribed burn and rangeland management, which ultimately has an impact on all Texans.”
