Multiple Agencies, Ranchers Work to Reseed Tens of Thousands of Acres of Scorched Land

BOX ELDER COUNTY, Utah – Just west of Grouse Creek, Kelly Warr watches a tractor pull a set of drills, as thousands of seeds are planted in the ground. The thousands of acres of burned out land used to be grazing areas for his 500 head of cattle.

“We’ve lost more of our summer range than anything,” Warr said. “We have quite a few cows that are displaced for the next couple of years.”

For now, he plans to feed some of his cattle in the spring and summer months, with hay that is normally used for winter. He doesn’t know what he’ll do afterwards.

“We’re looking for other places to go with them,” Warr said. “Been a lot of fires around the country, the last year or two, and it’s really hard to find pasture, and when you do, it’s it’s pretty costly.”

The Division of Wildlife Resources, Bureau of Land Management, and Department of Agriculture and Food are among the agencies, working with land owners to restore about 25,000 acres within the Goose Creek Fire area. The fire, spanning well over 120,000 acres, burned over 65,000 acres of grazing land in Utah alone.

“We’re working collaboratively together to reseed as many acres as possible before the winter hits,” Clint Hill, a Grazing Biologist with the Department of Agriculture and Food said. “We try to rest these areas that we seed for two years, post seeding them. So that means cattle for grazing will be off of the landscape for two years.”

That’s time that ranchers, like Warr will have to spend somewhere else, as they hope new sage brush grows in as quickly as possible.

“We’re at the mercy of mother nature,” Warr said.

The lands also feed wildlife, including sage grouse, mule deer, and elk. On top of trying to reseed before winter sets in, Nate Long, a Habitat Restoration Biologist, with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources says they’re also fighting to stay ahead of weeds.

“There’s a window of opportunity before more invasive and aggressive growing plants grow into the space that’s void now from the fire,” Long said.

In the meantime, Warr remains positive. He says a similar, but smaller fire in 2007 created similar challenges for his family. He’s confident they’ll weather through again, hopefully coming back to better grazing land in a couple of years.

“Your ranges actually do better after the fire,” Warr said. “Your grasses come back better, and it thins out a lot of the juniper trees, but it’s getting through them two years that’s kind of tough.”