Wildlife can face added risk after Texoma grass fires, A&M extension guidance says

Small mammals on Texoma range that burned in recent grass fires, including the Bulcher wildfire in the Gainesville area, can run short of food and shelter once the flames are out, according to Texas A&M AgriLife Extension guidance on fire and wildlife. With cover gone, the guidance says, they can also face more exposure and a higher risk from predators.

The AgriLife publication describes what can happen, not what has happened. It does not measure animal losses from the recent Texoma fires.

The Bulcher wildfire is documented in an Aug. 31 Texas A&M Forest Service request for a National Weather Service spot forecast, which named grass as the fuel. The next day's forecast called for highs near 100 degrees and humidity falling to roughly 30 percent. The record confirms the fire but not how much of Texoma has burned.

County governments had already restricted burning. Grayson County commissioners adopted a drought-related burning order on Aug. 11 scheduled to run through Sept. 30, the county agenda record shows. Cooke County adopted its own restriction on Feb. 9 for up to 90 days, with commissioners able to lift it early if they found the hazard had passed, according to the county order.

What comes next for wildlife depends largely on rain. National Park Service guidance for Southern Plains ecosystems says drought after a fire can keep vegetation from returning and hold growth down for years, with consequences for the animals that feed and shelter in it.

Fire can also improve habitat as plants come back. Oklahoma State University Extension says a burn can raise palatable forage for deer and the annual broadleaf plants bobwhite quail use, at the cost of nesting and escape cover for a time. A U.S. Forest Service species review flags that lost cover as a possible short-term rise in predation risk for northern bobwhite, worst where few unburned patches remain. OSU Extension adds that changes in food and cover can affect more animals than direct fire exposure, and that some effects may take years to appear.

Land managers in the region already set fires on purpose. Friends of Hagerman reports that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Oklahoma/North Texas Fire Zone burns parts of Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge every year to cut hazardous vegetation and improve habitat. The Fish and Wildlife Service says more than half of its land nationwide sits in ecosystems that evolved with fire.

Statewide, Texas A&M Forest Service reported that its wildfire responses ran well above normal from October 2025 into mid-January 2026. The Ross Fire in Palo Pinto County had burned about 90,000 acres by Sept. 4, which the agency ranks as the largest summer wildfire in state records kept since 2005.