One year after historic wildfires, ranchers in Vernon and Beauregard are recovering

Story by Alena Maschke 

​The sound of an aircraft flying low overhead still shakes Doug Branch. 
 
Hearing a sound similar to the planes that dropped pink fire retardant and water on the raging flames below stirs up memories of sitting on his porch night after night, watching the fires in the distance. Finally, as the flames surrounded his pasture, they grabbed everything they could, loaded up livestock and equipment and made their exit from the family ranch — unsure whether there would be anything to return to.
 
“It was just unreal — I mean, anxiety, every day,” Branch remembers. “That's the worst thing I've ever been through in my life,” he said of the stress of those late days of August last year.
 
A year later, Branch and other farmers and ranchers have mostly recovered, but some scars — economic and emotional — remain.
 
Between August and October last year, wildfires burned through 60,000 acres of woods, timber farms and pastures, in an area of the state where timber production and ranching make up a major chunk of the economy. Thousands of animals — cattle, horses, donkeys, goats — had to be moved around, often more than once, to save them from the erratic movement of the fires.
 
In the rural parishes of Beauregard and Vernon, fires that were put out reignited, with tall pine trees falling across firelines and serving as a bridge for the flames to cross. “They were just falling right across them and catching and catching again,” Branch remembers. “You just thought there was never going to be an end to them.” 
 
Ranchers had already started the summer off at a disadvantage. Because of the dry conditions, hay was hard to come by and expensive. Branch said that at the time of the fires, he had about 18 rolls, compared to the over 100 rolls he would normally stock. Those same conditions then provided the perfect environment for wildfires to spread, burning up much needed pastures.
 
Losing pastures was one of the most significant impacts many ranchers in Beauregard Parish saw from the fire, according to BJ Warden, whose team at the Beauregard Parish Covered Arena oversaw the regional efforts to evacuate livestock. 
 
“Their houses weren't taken, but most of the pasture land was gone,” Warden said of many of the ranchers who brought their animals to the arena. 
 
But there’s a silver lining. Stuck with a flat tire recently near Singer, one of the hotspots of last year’s fires in Beauregard, Warden noticed something. “All the trees are still dead, but the grass is 20 times greener now,” he said. Burning vegetation returns some nutrients back to the soil, which can help certain plants, like grass, regrow stronger. 
 
Generally, more moist weather conditions this year have contributed to lower fire risk and drastically lower hay prices, Branch noted. Where he paid $60 a bale last year, that price is now down to $30.
 
Still, he’s seen some long-term impacts from the fires. Not long before, Branch had shifted his cattle production from commercial to registered breeding stock. His first generation of Brangus calves, which was born after the fires, was smaller in volume than he expected, something he attributes, in part, to the impact of the evacuations on his cows.
 
“I blame that a lot on hauling these cows and moving them so much, they were stressed out,” Branch said. 
 
According to Warden, some Beauregard farmers lost cattle during the fires due to stress and smoke inhalation. Some, he said, just opened up their pasture gates and hoped for the best. “With a wildfire, you never really know which direction it's going to go,” Warden said. “So at the height of it, everybody was really just at the last minute evacuating their animals.”
 
Robin Stewart said she was able to evacuate horses from her father’s Leesville ranch early on to nearby Hicks. Still, she stayed until the flames came closing in on her father’s home, the air so thick with smoke she couldn’t see but a few feet in front of her, trying to defend the property and evacuate animals that had been moved there from other fire-threatened areas.
 
When she finally left, “I just looked in my rear mirror, and I just knew there was no way anything would be left standing,” Stewart remembers. “I had no doubt it would all go up.” 
 
In what even emergency responders considered nothing short of a miracle, her father’s home and all other structures on the property were left unscathed. Still, the damages were significant. Mature timber that the family had been waiting to cut until prices imcreased was lost, so was a fence on the border of the property. The grounds that could be used as pastures for cattle are still muddy and uneven from fire lanes that were cut across the property.
 
“We lost a lot,” Stewart said. Still she’s determined to bring cattle back to the ranch, something she had hoped to do before the fires. “In order to have cattle, you have to have good fences,” she explained. But, she added, “As soon as these fences are fixed, there will be cattle here again.”
 
Despite all that was lost in the fires, Branch, Warden and Stewart all focused on the positive: the immense support from everyone in the community. 
 
Family members, neighbors, first responders and sometimes strangers helped fight fires and evacuate cattle and equipment as the fires raged around them. Volunteers at the Beauregard Parish arena worked day and night to take in and move cattle around, even as the air filled with the smell of smoke and ashes were raining down on them.
 
“I’ll be eternally grateful to the brave men and women who worked tirelessly without complaining,” Stewart said. “I’m just glad we didn’t lose everything we had.”