{"id":16221,"date":"2025-10-08T12:42:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T18:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/western-slope-farmers-and-ranchers-still-tallying-the-cost-of-summer-wildfires\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:36:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:36:20","slug":"western-slope-farmers-and-ranchers-still-tallying-the-cost-of-summer-wildfires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/western-slope-farmers-and-ranchers-still-tallying-the-cost-of-summer-wildfires\/","title":{"rendered":"Western Slope farmers and ranchers still tallying the cost of summer wildfires"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Some
Some of Mesa County rancher Janie VanWinkle's U.S. Forest Service grazing lands are only easily accessible by ATV or on horseback. (Dan Boyce\/CPR News)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a 70-foot wall of flames crested a nearby ridge, Janie VanWinkle knew it was time to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn that moment, we were absolutely terrified,\u201d VanWinkle said.<\/p>\n

It was July 14, and she had been warned that the Turner Gulch Fire<\/a> would likely move onto the grazing land her family leases from the U.S. Forest Service. She climbed into a side-by-side ATV with her husband and son for a better vantage from high on the Uncompahgre Plateau. The flames consumed trees in moments, as the fire engulfed the ridge.<\/p>\n

Two months later, the vantage where she watched the fire\u2019s explosive surge looks like an ashen moonscape. The Turner Gulch Fire burned about 60 percent of the 39,000 acres they lease from the U.S. Forest Service, that\u2019s more than one and a half times the size of Manhattan Island.<\/p>\n

For the VanWinkles, like for many farmers and ranchers on the Western Slope, the years-long process of recovery has begun. But just how many ranchers were affected is not yet clear.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of these landowners, they just got out of the thick of it,\u201d said Rio Blanco County natural resource director Reece Melton. \u201cThey have a lot of work ahead of them to assess the damages.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The
The Turner Gulch fire burned nearly 32,000 acres in Mesa County in the summer of 2025. (Dan Boyce\/CPR News)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Lee and Elk fires ravaged Rio Blanco County<\/a> this summer. They burned a combined area slightly larger than the city of Chicago. The damaged property included power line infrastructure critical for local oil and gas fields \u2014 there are dozens in Rio Blanco County. Those operations are still functioning on backup electricity, but are out of options if other power issues arise.<\/p>\n

Then came the rain. It helped put the fires out, but led to flash flooding on the blackened and vulnerable land. Rocks and trees washed across fields. Mudslides closed local roads.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have this level of ecological disturbance without some things being changed on the landscape long-term,\u201d Melton said.<\/p>\n

The state estimates the cost of the damage on private and public lands in Rio Blanco County to be at least $27 million.<\/p>\n

\"Barbed
Barbed wire fencing can cost up to $20,000 per mile to build, especially in rough terrain. Fencing is one of the biggest costs facing ranchers impacted by wildfire. (Dan Boyce\/CPR News)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last week, Gov. Jared Polis requested a major disaster declaration<\/a> from the Trump Administration, which could release funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. That request<\/a> has yet to be approved.<\/p>\n

The county posted a questionnaire to its Facebook page<\/a>, attempting to assess affected landowners. So far, Melton\u2019s office has heard from nearly 30 farmers and ranchers who were impacted.<\/p>\n

In late August, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced<\/a> a number of disaster aid options available to farmers and ranchers affected by the fires. They range from compensation for lost livestock to low-interest loans to rebuild lost buildings, and restoration funds from the Natural Resources Conservation Service.<\/p>\n

Some of the funding will be dispersed quickly, but some programs require lengthy applications and paperwork that could take a year for approval.<\/p>\n

A joint effort among the Colorado Farm Bureau, Colorado Cattlemen\u2019s Association and Colorado Livestock Association is raising money to help affected landowners. So far, they\u2019ve raised about $125,000.<\/p>\n

The path to recovery is a long one. Rio Blanco County commissioner Callie Scritchfield said she\u2019s expecting long-term impacts on the region, and she\u2019s concerned about increased flood risk on the burn scars.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just is really going to depend on what Mother Nature does,\u201d Scritchfield said.<\/p>\n

\"Mesa
Mesa County rancher Janie VanWinkle surveys damage to her fencing from the Turner Gulch Fire on Sep. 12. (Dan Boyce\/CPR News)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As VanWinkle walked her charred allotment on the Uncompahgre Plateau, she knelt down next to long strands of barbed wire fence on the ground. Reaching into the ash, she scooped up a handful of thick metal staples, the only remaining evidence of the wooden post that held up the strands.<\/p>\n

A mile of barbed wire fence can cost as much as $20,000 to purchase and install. The VanWinkles lost between six and eight miles, much of it in steep terrain.<\/p>\n

The Forest Service does provide the materials for fencing leased allotments. VanWinkle said some labor costs also might be reimbursed by the USDA, but that doesn\u2019t change the arduous work required for her family to restretch fence across steep mountainsides.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes two and a half, three hours to get here with a pickup and an ATV,\u201d she said. \u201cSome of these fences will take another two hours to get to on a horse. So all that time will add significant cost to the process of rebuilding.\u201d<\/p>\n

At least most of her cattle are safe. The family was able to truck their herd of about 1,500 cows and calves to another unused allotment 10 miles south. It\u2019s a temporary measure and not ideal. Moving cattle can cause stress and disrupt their growth. The cows don\u2019t know the land and where the best grazing or water sources are. The VanWinkles don\u2019t know the land either.<\/p>\n

It will have to do for now. Part of their allotment burned by the Turner Gulch Fire was land they were saving to graze through the end of October.<\/p>\n

To read more stories from Colorado Public Radio, visit www.cpr.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

of Mesa County rancher Janie VanWinkle's U.S. Forest Service grazing lands are only easily accessible by ATV or on horseback. (Dan Boyce\/CPR News) As a 70-foot wall of flames crested a nearby ridge, Janie VanWinkle knew it was time to go. \u201cIn that moment, we were absolutely terrified,\u201d VanWinkle said. It was July 14, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16222,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1587,28,1263,258,84],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-farms","tag-headlines","tag-ranching","tag-western-slope","tag-wildfire"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16221"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20080,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16221\/revisions\/20080"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16221"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}