A 13-member state board meets Monday afternoon in Austin to approve the next batch of certified prescribed burn managers — a credential that decides, under Texas law, whether a landowner can be sued when a deliberately set fire gets away.
The statute is blunt about it. An owner, lessee or occupant of agricultural or conservation land is not liable for property damage, injury or death caused by a prescribed burn on that land if a certified and insured burn manager supervised it. The shield holds only while that manager carries at least $1 million in coverage per occurrence and $2 million over the policy period. A 2021 amendment capped what the person running the burn can be made to pay at the insurance floor the board itself sets, and, where that person is certified, cut off claims over smoke that traveled more than 300 feet. None of it reaches gross negligence.
Insurance is the choke point. The coverage requirement is what keeps the number of certified burn managers small — 78 statewide on the department’s list as of Monday, split evenly between private and commercial managers, alongside 18 lead burn instructors. Lawmakers responded last session with House Bill 2563, which set up a temporary self-insurance pool for certified burn managers run by the Texas A&M Forest Service and took effect September 1. The forest service puts the appropriation for it at $4 million. Applications for certification go to the agriculture department, and the board acts on them in batches at meetings like this one.
Monday’s agenda is short: a new member is sworn in, minutes from the July 10 meeting are approved, and the board votes on applications from would-be burn managers and lead instructors. The notice does not name the new member and no appointment announcement for the board could be found, so who takes the oath is not public. Nor is the current membership: the department has never filled in its own contacts page for the board, and the roster below comes from minutes two and a half years old.
The board sets the training curriculum and the certification standards those applicants have to meet, so it decides in practice how many people in Texas can offer landowners that protection. When it meets again is the last thing on the list before adjournment.
Meeting at a glance
- When
- 1:00 p.m. CT Monday, August 10, 2026. Minutes from a July 10, 2026 meeting are up for approval.
- Where
- Legal conference room, 11th floor, Stephen F. Austin Building, 1700 North Congress Avenue, Austin 78701.
- Governing body & chair
- Texas Prescribed Burning Board, inside the Texas Department of Agriculture — 13 members on two-year terms who elect their own presiding officer. Justin Penick chaired as of the last published minutes.
- Format
- In person. Public comment is item VI. Nothing in the notice or on the department’s pages offers remote access.
- Live video
- None found.
- Full agenda
- Secretary of State Open Meeting Viewer · Board page
Board members
- Justin Penick, Angelina County — chairman as of February 2024.
- Wayne Pfluger · Charles Tatton · Chris Schenck.
- Mitch Conine · Jason Ellis · Dale Smith.
- Dale Scott · Roxanne Hernandez · Heather Brister.
- Dr. Morgan Treadwell · Dr. Douglas Tolleson · Dr. Nathan Gill.
Roster: the last published board minutes, from February 9, 2024 — the department’s own contacts page for the board still reads “coming soon,” and its minutes archive stops at August 2024. Treat these names as two and a half years old and unconfirmed. Penick is listed as a contact on Monday’s notice, which is the only current corroboration of any name here. By statute the board seats one employee each from the Texas A&M Forest Service, Parks and Wildlife, the environmental commission, AgriLife Extension, AgriLife Research, Texas Tech’s range and wildlife department, the agriculture department and the soil and water conservation board, plus five agricultural landowners appointed by the agriculture commissioner. Contact: Casey Corley, Texas Department of Agriculture, 512-787-9966.