Executive orders and donations are supporting producers who experienced losses
Wyoming residents and the state government are taking measures to help farmers affected by wildfires.
Gov. Mark Gordon, for example, signed two executive orders to allow for more aid transportation.
“The emergency requires that the transportation and delivery of livestock feed and livestock into and within the State of Wyoming shall be exempt from 49 CFR 395.3,” one order says.
This executive order temporarily removes the rule that a commercial truck driver can’t drive after a period of 14 consecutive hours after coming on-duty following 10 consecutive hours off.
The other executive order provides more flexibility for truckers to carry oversized and overweight loads of livestock feed and livestock.
Wildfires have been burning in the state since June and have damaged farmland and other farm infrastructure along the way.
Four fires in northern Wyoming and southern Montana, for example, have burned more than 448,000 acres.
To put that number into context, farmers in Delaware planted 439,000 acres of crops in 2024, USDA data says.
“We didn’t know what the extent was,” Dave Belus, a rancher near Buffalo, Wyo., who lost more than 46,000 acres of land, told KTVQ. “We didn’t know what we had and what we had lost. All I know is when I topped the hill coming out of Sheridan, the plume of smoke was unbelievable.”
Residents are also getting behind local farmers.
Gene Bard, a representative with Marathon Oil Corporation in Sheridan, for example, is working with the Big Horn Equestrian Center to collect donations that will be redirected to help rebuild fences.
“Success of the rancher equals success of the business in town,” he told KTVQ. “So it comes full circle. It really does.”
A Facebook page is up too.
The Northeast Wyoming and Southern Montana Wildfire Fencing Relief page provides updates and opportunities for donations.