Donations support ranchers affected by fires

Between 12 and 15 Kalispell FFA and vocational agriculture students started one of the few remaining Friday mornings of the summer hauling 15 tons of hay onto a flatbed truck as part of a larger effort to provide relief to ranchers who lost grazing land by the Lodgepole Complex wildfire in eastern Montana.

They hay was produced by the H.E. Robinson Vocational Agriculture Center and goes toward feeding its livestock, while the remaining hay is typically sold. Rather than sell the hay, vo-ag teacher Brian Bay, Tucker Hankinson and Justin Heupel decided to donate it.

“So this is excess hay we can donate to support this cause. It’s about 600 small square bales” ag teacher Justin Heupel said while jotting down information in a notebook as students moved the bales out of a barn onto Jonathan Allen’s truck of Somers-based Kootur Transport on Friday.

“I know 15 tons is a lot of hay to move,” vo-ag and Glacier High School student Skyler Farnes said about why he was helping out — in addition to logging volunteering hours for school.

“It’s always better to have more people,” vo-ag and Flathead High School student Morgan Kelly said.

The 15 tons is part of roughly of 135 tons of hay donations collected from Northwest Montana and Northern Idaho producers.

Coordinating the local hay relief effort is Deena Shotzberger of Libby and Shawn Watt of Kalispell. It began when Shotzberger, who defines herself as a “hobby farmer” with about 40 to 50 acres, tried to figure out how she could transport about five to seven tons of extra hay she had after hearing about initial needs that an estimated 34,000 tons of hay was required to feed 7,700 head of cattle through June 1, 2018 when grazing lands returned.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has since opened the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge for emergency grazing relief and allotments were specifically made available for ranchers who lost grazing land in the Lodgepole Complex fires.

“Other ranchers have offered grazing land,” Shotzberger said. “Some cows were hauled out of the area, I know some were hauled to Wyoming.”

Shotzberger, who worked on a Type 1 incident management team for 20 years, has seen the spectrum of issues wildfires cause.

“So I’ve seen fire from a management end and an impacted end,” Shotzberger.

Her husband John, was also out helping secure the hay bales to the truck on his time off from working on the Poncin Northern Rockies Type 1 incident management team.

Shawn Watt, who has previously worked with trucks in licensing, said she knows about the devastation fires have from personal experience and the willingness of farming and ranching communities to come to the aid of others.

“We have cows so we’re consumers of hay. When we lived in Idaho we had a barn burn down and we lost 20 tons of hay overnight,” Watt said adding that the response from her neighbors to help out was quick. “We owe it to pay it forward.”

The caravan of trucks and semis left from Columbia Falls on Saturday.

The Lodgepole Complex wildfire has spanned 270,723 and is 93 percent contained as mop-up efforts are underway as of July 31. Sixteen homes and 16 structures were reported destroyed in addition to a significant amount of fencing and haystacks according to a final update by the Incident Information System. The fire began July 19.

In addition to hay, funds are sought to help with fuel costs, fencing supplies, semis, trailers and labor support. Watt reminds people to connect with coordinators first before donating.

To contribute or for more information, contact Shotzberger at 406-293-8188 or dshotzberger@hotmail.com; or Watt at 208-610-4205 or watt.shawn@gmail.com. If emailing, include “hay” in the subject line.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.