8-19 IAN Wildfires and Beef

 Idaho wildfires and beef cattle. A conversation with Wyatt Prescott, Executive Director of the Idaho Cattlemen’s Association. “We have a lot of ranchers out there right in the middle of these fires. Their home structures, their livestock and their entire livelihood is basically on fire or threatened by the fires right now. Our support definitely goes their way. I am trying to coordinate with them and help in any way that we can which quite frankly, we feel quite helpless here in Boise. I have yet to know the numbers in terms of livestock lost and our ranchers are trying to limit that as much as possible and get them out of the path of the fire. So maybe this will have an impact on our voting public because we have had issues coming up regarding ranchers helping fight wildfires. Absolutely. That has been our stance all along that we can more actively manage those resources through grazing and utilizing those fine fuels in a renewable fashion and turn them into beef instead of smoke. It is not only killing livestock but it is also killing wildlife, elk and deer, not to mention sage grouse which is the keystone species to be the sage step ecosystem. So it is really frustrating from a rancher’s point of view to watch this kind of catastrophic wildfire.