The Smokehouse Creek fire has encompassed more than one million acres in the Texas Panhandle, including the Gene Howe Wildlife Management Area (WMA).

The fire covered up to 98 percent of the WMA and, while it may have damaged fence lines, did not affect major infrastructure. However, staff will not conduct a full damage assessment until the event’s conclusion.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department wildland fire management staff are assisting with this event as well as other wildfires throughout the state. Texas Game Wardens are assisting local law enforcement with road closures, evacuations and door-to-door notifications when necessary. Our thoughts are with the people and communities impacted by this historic wildfire.

While emergency response operations remain active, wildlife experts urge the public to focus on helping people and reporting dangerous conditions rather than reporting displaced wildlife. Dispatch teams and hotlines are being used to coordinate emergency first responders.

Wildlife, in the meantime, are equipped by nature to take care of themselves in most situations. Big game animals such as white-tailed deer and pronghorn antelope can evade fire, burrowing animals seek refuge underground and birds fly out of harm’s way. While also dependent of rainfall, fire has a way of rejuvenating almost every plant on the prairie. It increases plant diversity, with a corresponding response from wildlife in terms of abundance and diversity.