Unprecedented hot, windy and dry temperatures led to the blazing of three fires near Sheridan County’s borders from August to November. The Elk Fire, Remington Fire and House Draw Fire burned more than 468,000 acres of the Bighorn Mountains, damaging the forage, property and fencing in its path.

Despite this devastation, regional ranchers and government agencies said the fires provide opportunities for growth and change as they forge paths forward.

Members of the Bighorn National Forest, Sheridan-Johnson County Farm Service Agency, Bureau of Land Management, Natural Resources Conservation Service and Padlock Ranch participated in the last panel of the Working Land Collaborative’s Working Lands Workshop, an event to provide resources and facilitate discussion on wildfire preparation and recovery. 

“People are getting to work in terms of figuring out what the next steps are, what the opportunities are,”  National Resources Conservation Service District Conservationist Andrew Cassiday said. “(We’re) trying to be thoughtful about that and be ready to make those decisions — and knowing the resources that are out there.”

Grazing lands

One of the most notable changes for ranchers and farmers following the fires is the destruction of grazing lands, which can have long-term impacts on cattle operations, Cassiday said.

“All of a sudden, you don’t have grass for your cow,” Cassiday said. “So maybe the only option is to sell a cow and take capital gains taxes… so how do you prioritize that?”

JD Hill, livestock manager at Padlock Ranch, deals with the immediate concern of grazing space and fencing following the Elk Fire’s damage. Located near Ranchester on the base of the Bighorns, Padlock Ranch produces 10,000 high-quality feeder cattle each year. Hill said the ranch’s diverse set of holdings allows the ranch to keep the cow herd together, despite losing more than a dozen miles of fence and grazing land. 

“There’s a huge impetus for a producer to try to keep his cow herd together,” Hill said. “You’ve really got to be adaptive.”

Cassiday said ranchers dealing with the loss of grazing lands have options as they look to potentially sell cattle. Some of these solutions remain unknown or in development.

“There’s nothing directly in the tax code specifically (on) selling livestock in response to fire,” Cassiday said. “There is, in some cases, for drought, and a lot of times those are happening at the same time, but not always.”

Cassiday said emergency management funds are often reserved for infrastructure. A deferral of capital gains — waiting to pay taxes on profits from a sale — may be a more viable option

“If you sell, there’s a basis on the value gain you’ve put into those livestock, and that’s taxable,” Cassiday said.  “But if you sell them and your intent is to buy them back in a year or two… as long as it’s reinvested, it’s not taxable.”

Replacing fencing is another challenge. 

Cassiday said fences are hard to insure and expensive to replace, but replacing damaged fencing may give ranchers and landowners a chance to update fencing structures.

Thad Berrett, the rangeland management specialist for the Bureau of Land Management Buffalo Field Office, suggested ranchers look into The Bighorn Fencing Initiative. This initiative is a collaboration of multiple foundations and organizations to help repair, modify and remove fencing to reduce wildlife deaths and sustain wildlife migration, according to past reporting from The Sheridan Press.

“There’s also great opportunities to be putting in for grants for large dollar amounts to help reconstruct fences,” Berrett said. “Anybody that has fences that are not (up to) the wildlife standard, be paying attention to that.”

Leadership

Government resources and staff were also stretched thin during last fall’s fires, said Courtney Yelton, the county executive director of the Sheridan-Johnson County Farm Service Agency. As an organization under the USDA, the FSA provides programs and resources for farmers and ranchers, including workers impacted by natural disasters.

“We were a small crew…we just lacked resources altogether,” Yelton said. “But the other major challenge was communication. Things changed so fast. It was constantly evolving, constantly changing.”

Despite this, Yelton said the situation created stronger bonds, forged over hours spent investigating properties and conditions in side-by-side vehicles with landowners.

“I got to meet these folks and build these relationships, and I think they're going to be pretty solid for quite some time,” Yelton said. “ I was shown so much kindness during that time. We were all stressed. We were all running on no sleep, and still, everybody was kind and willing to work with me.”

Zach Palm, Rangeland Management Specialist with the Bighorn National Forest, said stronger relationships and connectedness between resource groups is one of the fires’ lasting — and positive — impacts.

“The partnerships and the collaboration that has come out of all the incidents we’ve gone through here this past year, (we’re) building on those, maintaining on those to move forward,” Palm said.