'It looks like a wasteland': Western Slope ranchers cope with the Turner Gulch fire
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GATEWAY, Colo. — “It looks like a wasteland,” said Bryce Casto, standing in four inches of ash on his ranch in Unaweep Canyon in western Colorado.
On July 10, a lightning strike started the Turner Gulch fire, which tore through the south side of the canyon, burning brush and trees on land that the Casto family have used for pasture for generations. No people or livestock were hurt in the fire, but Casto said he lost more than 400 acres of land.
The fire has burned more than 21,000 acres, and is 49 percent contained, according to an update from the incident management team.
Video: Joshua Vorse, Rocky Mountain PBS
Hundreds of Casto’s cattle graze on the Uncompahgre each summer, commingled with cows from the VanWinkle family ranch. The Castos and VanWinkles both have run cattle in this area for more than a century in their beef production operations.
“My great grandpa was there before the Forest Service was the Forest Service. I'm fourth generation. Our son is fifth generation there,” said Janie VanWinkle, a Western Slope rancher.
As the fire grew in mid-July, VanWinkle, her husband Howard and son Dean worked with public land managers and fire crews to keep the herd of cattle out of harm's way.
“One afternoon we were riding through the trees, all of a sudden there's another guy, on horseback. We're like, ‘What the heck?’ And it was our range conservationist with the Forest Service. [He] had his own horse and was helping us to move those cattle out of that area,” said VanWinkle.
Beef producers bring cows to higher elevation over the summer for a few reasons. The cooler temperatures are more comfortable for the animals and permitted grazing on public land is less costly than feeding the cows in a pasture all summer. VanWinkle says grazing is also a management tool for large landscapes. Cows eat the grass and brush, reducing fuel for wildfires.
To watch over the cows, the Castos have stayed at a "cow camp" on the Uncompahgre for decades. It's a small cabin with a tack shed and corral for the horses the family rides to work with the cattle. The fire destroyed the cow camp July 15.
Cheyenne Roehm, Casto’s niece, raced up the mountain with her family to rescue their horses from the camp.
“I just saw the flames getting closer and closer. Everything that our family had built, is just completely gone now,” said Roehm, who was able to help round up the horses and get them out the path of the blaze.
In a video Casto took at the cow camp after the fire, a green gate — still upright and attached to its post — is the only recognizable fixture left among white piles of ash and heaps of twisted metal.
The fire is still burning, and most days VanWinkle and her family drive to the top of the Uncompahgre, get on a horse or side-by-side, and check on cows, water sources, and where the fire is burning as crews continue to make fire lines and put out hot spots.
In the 39,000 acre grazing allotment, the cows stay in one section for a few days and then are moved to another section of the mountain. The fire burned through the areas they hadn't grazed yet. In the next few weeks, the ranchers will have to find a new place for the herd.
"And then it's going to be out of the norm. The cattle have a very normal pattern. They know where to go and they know the water, and they know the best feed, and they know [the land]," said VanWinkle.
VanWinkle is already thinking about where the cows will graze next year. It may be another allotment, 10 to 15 miles away. VanWinkle isn't sure exactly what will happen, but her priorities haven't changed.
"The entire focus of our family will be to make sure that the animals are taken care of and that the landscape is cared for in a responsible manner," she said.
There is less land for the cows to graze because of the fire. Even if the ranchers are able to use a different area, it may not be enough to support the herd. In that case, the ranchers would have to cut back their numbers, keeping smaller herds.
“The cows right now are fine. They're outside of the fire, and they're wandering around being a cow. It depends on how much more the fire burns before we figure out whether we're going to be okay for the summer or whether we're going to have to do something else,” said Casto.
Between the two families, they have more than 800 head of cattle on the Uncompahgre National Forest. VanWinkle said along with making sure they have access to water, and don’t get too close to parts of the fire that are still burning, she’s monitoring their respiratory health for any issues from the smoke. Despite recent dry and windy conditions, she said they haven’t had any serious health problems.
Those dry and windy conditions drove fire growth late last week. It grew hundreds of acres each evening as thunderstorms brought erratic wind to the area. A crew of 254 firefighters are working on the fire, according to an August 1 update from the incident management team.
Miles of post and barbed wire fence were destroyed in the fire as well, much of it in rough, difficult-to-access terrain.
"We've maintained them, we fixed them, we've worked on them, and now they're gone. It costs about $20,000 per mile to replace fence," said VanWinkle of the 60-year-old infrastructure.
Ranching isn't easy under usual circumstances, Casto said. The price of beef has gone up in the last few years, but feed, fuel and equipment got more expensive too. Labor costs for farmers across the country rose 5.9 percent last year, and are projected to climb another 3.6 percent this year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
"There's always something. But this one is a big deal," he said, and paused, taking in the charred hillsides that used to be thick with sagebrush, oak brush and pine trees.
"It'll come back, but it's going to take time."
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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