Western Wildfires Threatening Farmers and Ranchers

CBS News’ Richard Ramos, Brandon Downs and Cecilio Padilla reported Sunday that “Northern California’s Park Fire has surpassed 360,000 acres burned as evacuation orders affect four counties—Butte, Tehama, Shasta and Plumas.”

“Cal Fire reported that containment increased to 12% on Sunday morning. The Park Fire is the largest wildfire in the state so far this year and the seventh-largest wildfire in California history, burning 360,141 acres as of Sunday evening, Cal Fire reports,” Ramos, Downs and Padilla reported. “The fire has scorched an area more than five times the size of the city of Sacramento.”

The Redding Record Searchlight’s Jessica Skropanic reported Saturday that “cattle, bees and other livestock were and are threatened by the Park Fire as it advanced into Tehama County from its starting point in north Chico.”

“It has been a rough six years for agribusiness owners in Butte and Tehama counties, who fought to save their farms from two other major wildfires and numerous smaller fires,” Skropanic reported. “‘They went through Dixie. They went through Camp. Now they’re going through Park,’ said Rory Crowley of Paradise, a commercial agribusiness loan officer with First Northern Bank.”

“Smoke settling in the valley can make harvesting difficult and unpleasant, but Crowley has watched farmers push through summer smoke before,” Skropanic reported. “It’s the ranchers and honeybee keepers who are directly in the Park Fire’s path, Crowley said. ‘They’re on summer range, which is up in the mountains,’ he said: Cattle and bees need water, so they summer at higher altitudes.”

“While ranchers are living in areas under evacuation orders, they hesitate to leave their stock, he said: ‘Hopefully, in the next 24 hours, we’ll get the all-clear’ from the Tehama County Sheriff’s Office,” Skropanic reported.

Oregon Farmers and Ranchers Affected, Too

KGW8’s Alma McCarty reported at the end of last week that eastern Oregon’s Durkee Fire is affecting farmers and ranchers in the region, as “ranchers in Vale told KGW there’s no way to know at this time just how many cattle — and ranches — have been lost to the flames.”

“‘Completely devastating,” said Mark McBride. ‘High emotions, high losses. And it will remain that way for a generation.’ McBride, also a volunteer firefighter for Vale Rangeland Fire Protection Association, added, ‘One of our family ranches is right in the middle of it, and one of them is next to come if we can’t get it stopped,'” McCarty reported.”

KTVB7’s Aspen Shumpert reported late last week that Blake Maxwell, who works for a wildfire fighting company out of Montana, was helping a rancher with fire containment lines in the Rye Valley, in far eastern Oregon, when “they had to leave 300 cattle behind. It was 150 pairs of mother and calves, he said.”

“‘I watched fire corral these cows in the corner of a pasture,’ Maxwell said. ‘And I tried to get up there and cut the fence for them, and I couldn’t quite get there in time,'” Shumpert reported.

“At this time, they are unsure if the cattle survived because they haven’t surveyed the area yet. Maxwell said if the cattle did survive, they are most likely sick or injured,” Shumpert reported. “…’When those ranchers lose all that, they don’t have anything,’ Maxwell said. ‘So, a lot of those ranchers they may have to sell off most of their cows, take them to the sale barn, because they can’t afford to feed them, because the grass they’re depending on is now ash on the ground.'”