On February 14, 2018, the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) and the Texas A&M Forest Service (TFS) officially completed their vegetative debris mitigation mission in Aransas County. As a result of completing these objectives, TEEX and TFS personnel and equipment will demobilized from Aransas County back to home units on Feb. 15.

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and TFS initiated trench burning operations in Refugio County on Oct. 13, 2017. TEEX, TFS, and TxDOT partnered to begin burning vegetative debris in Rockport on Oct 15, 2017, with two Air Curtain Incinerator (ACI) units supplied by Hidalgo County. The Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) purchased six new ACI units that were used to complete the vegetative debris burning operation in Aransas County.

With personnel provided by TFS, TEEX, and TxDOT, vegetative debris mitigation in Aransas and Refugio Counties has been an extremely successful effort. As of Feb. 14, debris burning operations have been conducted for 106 days over a four-month period.

Teams have burned an estimated 72,000 cu. yds. of vegetative debris in Aransas County, and that amounts to 360,000 tons of vegetative debris mitigated. TFS and TxDOT managed trench burning operations in Refugio County to burn an estimated 10,300 cu. yds. of vegetative debris. The cumulative estimated totals for vegetative debris burning in Aransas and Refugio Counties is 82,500 cu. yds. The combined total effort averaged 3,868 tons of vegetative debris burned per day.