In this image provided by the Oregon Department of Transportation, shows an area burned by the Durkee Fire near Interstate 84 close to Huntington, Ore., Tuesday afternoon, July 23, 2024.
Courtesy Oregon Department of Transportation / AP
Wildfires have burned more than a million and a half acres in Oregon so far, with the season still not over. Eastern Oregon has been especially hard hit by massive fires this summer, including the Durkee Fire which ignited last month and has burned nearly 300,000 acres. Ranchers in Eastern and Central Oregon face growing uncertainty and mounting economic losses to their livelihoods. The Oregon Cattlemen’s Association started a fund to raise money to help ranchers who’ve lost cattle or pasturelands for grazing.
Matt McElligott is the president of the OCA and the owner of LM Ranch in Baker and Grant Counties. He shares with us the impact of the wildfires on ranchers and the long road to recovery some of them face.
Note: The following transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer.
Jenn Chávez: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Jenn Chávez, in this week for Dave Miller. Wildfires have burned more than a million and a half acres in Oregon this year. And as Oregonians know, well, the fire season isn’t over yet. Eastern Oregon has been especially hard hit this summer, with massive blazes like the Durkee Fire. And this leaves ranchers in the region facing big losses and an uncertain road ahead. The Oregon Cattlemen’s Association is working to help them. Its president and Baker County rancher, Matt McElligott joins me now to talk about what folks are going through right now. Matt, thank you so much for being here.
Matt McElligott: Well, good afternoon Jenn. Thank you for having me.
Chávez: Good afternoon. So how has this fire season compared to others you’ve experienced in your region as a rancher?
McElligott: Oh, this fire season is by far the worst. It’ll go down in the record books as being the largest ever in the state, as long as records have been kept.
Chávez: When things are really bad, when we’re in the thick of it – say, fires are not contained yet, they’re expanding – what is happening on ranch land? What are ranchers doing in the moment to respond to the threat of wildfire?
McElligott: Typically, ranchers are the first response. They’re there when lightning strikes or arson strikes, that has happened [for] several fires in Oregon. And most ranchers have equipment where they can go and run around their property line, or at least around their homes and barns, and cut fire lines. And cutting fire lines, I mean by taking a tractor and a blade or a bulldozer and a blade, and pushing big wide swaths of dirt, and taking away all the grass and vegetation around the building or around the perimeter of their ranch, to hopefully slow the fire down or even stop it.
Chávez: I realize it might be hard to say at this stage. But what effect have this year’s wildfires had on the ranchers your association serves and their animals? What are people dealing with right now?
McElligott: So we have around 1,600 members throughout the state. And we’ve had fires from Jackson County all the way to Wallowa County, and Malheur and Baker, everywhere throughout the state. So what we’re doing is trying to help them recuperate. And in the thick of it, coordinating with government agencies, the state and federal agencies, to help respond to the fire, and then after the fire, help with recovery.
Chávez: How is your organization, the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, supporting its members through this time? What have you been doing specifically in response to these fires?
McElligott: To start with, we coordinated with [Oregon Department of Forestry] and the Oregon State Fire Marshal, and kept our members and people in rural communities [where] the fires are affecting informed on where the fires are, how far they were from their homes, their ranches, their structures.
The next step is we work with the governor to declare a state of emergency where these fires are at. And once that’s done, on a federal level, ask her for a state of emergency, because then that drives FEMA dollars and a different response as far as helping put the fires out. And then helping rehabilitate after the fires.
Chávez: I know that one tragic effect of these fires are potential deaths of cattle, of animals. What about the effect on grazing land? Because I know that’s another really important part of this, right?
McElligott: Many of the 1.5 million acres that you introduced is grazing land, either wide open range land or forested grazing land. And when that burns, naturally there’s nothing to graze. So cattle need moved off of those areas, and into areas that haven’t burned. And that is kind of problematic with as many acres as we’re talking about. In 11 eastern counties in Eastern Oregon, over three quarters of a million cattle over several million acres were affected last month. Those affect a lot of cattle. Those cattle have to go somewhere, and there’s just not enough land available to move all those cattle to new grazing ground. So they need to go somewhere where they can be fed.
And then that grassland is not going to recuperate right away. We live in an area that’s 12 to 15 [inches of] annual precipitation, and it may not recover next spring. We’re crossing our fingers, and hope we have a good winter with moisture and a good spring. But probably another 18 months after the fire to two years after the fire before it can be grazed again.
Chávez: How has this fire season been for you personally? Have you personally been affected by these fires? Have you been doing one-on-one assistance or outreach with some other fellow ranchers in your area?
McElligott: Yeah, a little bit of both. I have a ranch in Grant County where my cattle summer. The Monkey Creek Fire was to the north and to the west of my deeded property. And then there was a small fire in my forest service allotment called the Whiskey Fire, where my cattle actually were. But that one didn’t blow up, thankfully. Forest Service got on really fast and kept it small – 300 to 400 acres, somewhere in there.
What was very concerning was the way that the Monkey Creek Fire in that Battle Mountain Complex was moving and how fast it was moving. We had dozed fire lines around the property line, and dozed fire lines around our houses and barns. And there was one point in time when it was coming so fast and the wind was blowing so hard, I just knew I was going to lose it all. I had packed everything up that I could of any value that was left in my house. And on the way out, there was a structure crew there from Clackamas, Oregon. I told them “gates are unlocked, the house is unlocked, I’m leaving.” I thought the next time I come back it would be burned down, but I got lucky. The weather changed, it cooled, it rained. The fire crews got on that line and got it stopped. So I was super, super lucky.
Chávez: Wow, that’s so scary. Thank you for sharing a little bit about your experience. What support or assistance do you and others, or others in your industry, need now from the government?
McElligott: We’ve got the government, whether it’s state or federal, and most of the rehabilitation funds will come as federal through the Farm Service Agency or the NRCS through what they call EQIP, or ELAP – emergency livestock assistance for cattle that have lost in the fire. But we don’t know yet how many cattle have been lost, and we won’t know that for a while. A lot of this is big country. So the firefighters, the ranchers were cutting fences, opening gates, moving cattle out of the fire area. And it didn’t really matter where they were moving them to just as long as it was away from the flames. So they’re scattered out for miles. Some cattle are lost to the fire. Some have burnt udders if they were cows, and burnt feet on calves and cows, and smoke inhalation that’ll cause lung damage. So we don’t really have a good handle on the total loss yet.
Oregon Cattlemen’s Association also set up a wildfire relief fund to help people to rebuild fences, rebuild structures that they have lost and help them get their feet on the ground. We’ve collected over $80,000 from some very generous corporations and individuals that have given to that fund.
Chávez: Well, thank you so much. I think we’re gonna have to cut it there. But thank you so much for sharing about the work that you are doing with OCA, and for being here.
McElligott: OK, Jenn. Thanks so much.
Chávez: Matt McElligott is president of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association and the owner of LM Ranch in Baker and Grant Counties.
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