On June 27 after lunchtime, rancher Alyssa Wilcox observed a large plume of smoke looming southwest of the U.S. Forest Service land on the San Juan National Forest where her cows grazed. She recalled a similar sight from last year’s Sharp Canyon Fire near Cahone and watching a cloud of gray build behind her camp.
Ultimately, the Sharp Canyon Fire remained at a safe distance. The Ferris Fire, however, was different.
“As soon as I got outside, I could tell that it was close,” Wilcox said.
Soon after, the Forest Service issued evacuation orders as the flames touched the pasture where her horses grazed. She gathered her dogs and horses and tried to round up her 600 cows before evacuating to her home in Blanding, Utah.
“We just kicked the gates open, and we grabbed a big bunch, and just shoved them to the next pasture,” Wilcox said. “Because of the way the fire was moving, we could only ride one day. So we just had to hope that they followed.”
In the weeks since, the Ferris Fire has eaten up 65,000 acres and, based on conversations with firefighters and Forest Service officials, Wilcox’s herd avoided the blaze. She’s allowed to return Wednesday to assess the scorched earth and the condition of her scattered herd, which officials and neighbors have told her are mostly intact.
However, the fire is just one hardship in a list of challenges Southwest Colorado farmers and ranchers are facing this year.
“Because how dry it's been and how little forage there is, there will be a tremendous reduction in the number of cattle in this area,” Gerald Koppenhafer, Montezuma County Commissioner and a rancher himself, said. “There will be ranchers that will never come back to the amount they have right now.”
Due to this year's mild winter lacking in precipitation, Wilcox had to purchase an extra water truck to haul water from ponds onto the pasture. Most of Montezuma and Dolores counties are in extreme drought.
With less water, those harvesting cattle will likely grow less hay, have less forage on grazing allotments and, ultimately, pay higher prices for hay and feed.
“The ranchers are really going to experience a triple whammy out of that,” Shak Powers, deputy director of Region 9 Economic Development District, said.
Koppenhafer called it “economically devastating” to the ranching community, saying it presents a risk to the region’s economy as a whole with agriculture being one of the key industries in Southwest Colorado.
“It may take them several years to come back,” Koppenhafer said. “People don't realize what an economic driver that is to this community, but it's millions of dollars.”
According to the 2022 U.S. Department of Agriculture census, cattle sales totaled 9.3 million in Montezuma County and 2.4 million in Dolores County that year. There were 1,918 and 471 producers in each county respectively.
Koppenhafer explained that farmers and ranchers spend a lot of that money in the local economy, purchasing products from farm stores and other producers.
“People talk about the tourism and this and that,” Koppenhafer said. “Every year, those cattle are going out of here, and all that money's coming back in..”
He’s worried ranchers will sell off all or part of their herds after battling the stress and cost of drought, fire and lack of hay, shrinking the agriculture sector of the Southwest Colorado economy.
“Some of them have got to reduce their herd size,” Koppenhafer said. “Because the herd size is going to be reduced, it's going to affect how much comes back into this area.”
Powers pointed to the USDA Farm Service Agency, the Colorado Water Conservation Board and the Colorado State University Montezuma County Extension, all of which provide financial or farm management assistance.
“The message we are trying to communicate is that producers do not have to navigate the drought or the associated stress alone,” Powers said in a statement.
He added that mental health support can be crucial for producers facing financial and emotional pressure from drought and fire and said the Colorado Agricultural Addiction and Mental Health Program offers free sessions with an agriculture-informed behavioral health professional.
Meanwhile, Wilcox said, she and her fellow ranchers have banded together to support each other through the tough conditions.
“In ranching we face challenges. Every year, they're just different. So I think this is just a new one that most of us haven't experienced, but we're working through it together,” Wilcox said.
avanderveen@the-journal.com
