Cattle who were separated from their calves stand in front of burnt hills near Emmett, Idaho. (Mia Maldonado / Idaho Capital Sun)
Robert Oxarango, a former Boise hotshot crew member in the late ’80s and ’90s, is no stranger to wildfires, but facing them as a cattle rancher is a different challenge.
This year, the Paddock Fire devastated the grass on his Emmett ranch, displacing 350 pairs of calves and their mothers he owns.
The Paddock Fire, sparked by lightning on Aug. 18, burned nearly 190,000 acres north of Emmett over 12 days. At its peak, 348 personnel tackled the blaze with aircraft, dozers, and water tenders, according to the Bureau of Land Management Idaho Fire Program.
“The flames were taller than the trees, probably 30 feet tall,” Oxarango told the Idaho Capital Sun. “It was insanely hot. The fire jumped the road probably in three or four different places, spitting hot embers wherever it went.”
The severity of the fire forced Oxarango and his workers to take action. To find space for the displaced animals, they had to wean the 350 five-month-old calves off their mothers two months earlier than usual. Now, with the grass destroyed, the cows are being fed hay — an economically unsustainable solution, Oxarango said.