Dead cattle, devastation in wake of Western fires

Across the West, major wildfires are wreaking havoc this summer on the region's economically fragile livestock industry. In areas such as remote Powder River County, Mont., ranchers said they could be grappling with the devastation for years to come. Hay is in short supply. Hundreds of miles of fence and numerous corrals and water tanks must be rebuilt. Thousands of head of displaced livestock are being shipped to temporary pastures. Similar scenes are playing out in Oregon, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming and Idaho. Including Montana, the value of the six states' cattle industries approaches $9 billion annually. Hundreds of thousands of acres of grazing land have burned so far — with months to go in the annual fire season. The number of fires and total acreage burned in the West this summer is roughly within range of the past decade's average. What's different is where those fires are burning, as major blazes erupt on grasslands and brush where livestock can be more prevalent, said Jennifer Smith with the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho. And that's all set against a backdrop of a crushing drought that has set in for much of the region. If the dry conditions persist, the recovery of burned areas could stall, forcing cattle owners to sell their animals or seek more lasting alternatives to the private pastures and public lands they've run livestock on for generations...more