Cowboy State Daily By Renée Jean
When wildfires devastated ranches in Texas in 2022, Wyomingites were quick to haul trucks of hay for livestock there. Now ranchers there are returning the favor after fires have burned more than 810,000 acres across Wyoming.
During the Panhandle Fire in Texas last year, a lot of Wyomingites stepped up to help deliver hay and other necessities to stricken ranches.
Texas took note of all that help, and now is returning the favor in the wake of the Elk Fire, Pack Trail Fire, and other devastating wildfires that have burned in excess of 810,000 acres in the Cowboy State so far this season.
About 20 veterinary first-aid kits have been dropped off at the Parkman Bar & Grill for distribution to Bighorn Mountain ranchers, members of the Rancher Navy — Texas Fire Relief — Farm and Ranch Facebook group told Cowboy State Daily on Friday. That is just the beginning of what the group has planned to help ranchers in Wyoming.
And some members of the group have been helping all along with donated hay to help replace the huge swaths of grasslands that burned up.
“Long story short, the reason we showed up in Wyoming was because you all stepped up to help us, and it’s also what we do as an organization,” said Morgan Broome, a spokesperson for the group. “Amy Houston, who is one of our directors, has friends in the (Elk Fire) area, and she’s been keeping an eye on the fires.
“There was also a gentleman from Wyoming who had trucked hay all the way to Texas, quite a bit of hay actually, to assist our Panhandle fire.”
A post from that person highlighting Wyoming’s fire drew an immediate response from Garret Duvall with the Texas Rancher Navy group, Broome said.
“So, he loaded up a bunch of our supplies and headed up there to Wyoming to see what is needed and to start getting resources coordinated up there,” Broome said, “While we are Texas-based, if we see a community in need, as far as farming and ranching, anywhere within the United States, and we have the ability to help, we will.”
Group Started During Carbon Complex Fire
The 2022 Carbon Complex fire — multiple fires that together burned almost 55,000 acres in Texas — is what brought the Texas Rancher Navy group to life.
“That fire was unusual in that it burned through town, so it took out a lot of people’s homes and things like that,” Broome said. “And that was one of the biggest hay producing counties in Texas, so it impacted statewide, and they had a lot of livestock there that passed away.”
Lost pastures further compounded the misery and led to a lot of ad hoc efforts by ranchers trying to help.
“It was kind of mass chaos,” Broome said. “Nobody knew where anybody needed to go or what needed to happen. So, a group of us on Facebook who were kind of dispatching on our own got together on a FaceTime call and said, ‘Hey, let’s work together. Let’s make a team and get this organized.’”
From that was born the Texas Rancher Navy, after the Cajun Navy, a nonprofit group of private boat owners that volunteered search and rescue efforts during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
“We’ve created drop locations and we have Hotshots is what we call them, who show up at drop locations to take donations on smaller vehicles to the farms and ranches,” Broome said.
The Texas Rancher Navy’s Hotshots use smaller vehicles because often ranches have lost or cannot afford large equipment to offload big tractor trailers.
“This has kind of turned into a movement without really anticipating what it would become,” Broome said. “We’ve responded to fires all over Texas, as well as hurricanes, and fires in other places.”
Effects Of Elk Fire Will Linger
Patty Caywood, owner of The Parkman Bar and Grill, said the donations from Texas have already been distributed to those in need, and that they are much appreciated by the entire community.
“The fire impacted our community in full force,” Caywood said.
The effect of the Elk Fire, which has burned more than 96,000 acres, is likely to linger for a long time after, particularly for the affected ranches. They have lost all-important hay to feed their cattle through winter, as well as rangelands that will need to rest at least a year before animals can once again graze them…
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