By Andela Taylor
During a week meant to recognize agriculture, NCTA faculty, staff, and students have been living its values in real time. On Thursday, March 12, the Cottonwood Fire and other wildfires ignited across Nebraska, driven by dry conditions and relentless wind. What had been cattle rangeland was quickly engulfed in fast-moving flames, shifting unpredictably in the winds. For students at the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture, the first day of spring break took on a different meaning as learning moved beyond the classroom and into the realities unfolding around them.
Students stepped forward in a variety of ways, responding to immediate needs as they arose. Some loaded trailers and helped move livestock, others checked fences and monitored conditions, while many ran supplies like fuel, water, and anything else needed in the moment. Layna Wear (Holyoke, CO) and McKenzie Heil (North Platte, NE) assisted a property owner as fire threatened nearby ground. Hayley Boon (Eddyville, NE), Matthew Belveal (Yoder, CO), Dalton Casper (Rocky Ford, CO), Treven Critchfield (Bartley, NE), Noah Trampe (Amherst, NE), William Cockcroft (Esbon, KS), Trevyn Keene (Grand Island, NE), Johnna Perry (Tescott, KS), Brock Hassiepen (Greensburg, KS) and Conrad Burrow (Wheatland, CA) were among many responding wherever needed. There was no formal assignment or expectation, only a shared understanding of responsibility. Their actions reflected lessons of service shaped long before they arrived on campus and a natural alignment with a community grounded in care for one another.
The response extended far beyond any one group. Across rural Nebraska, neighbors arrived before they were asked, trailers filled driveways, and people found ways to contribute wherever they could. Firefighters, ranchers, farmers, and volunteers worked through long hours with little sleep, holding lines where possible and adapting as conditions changed. Many responders came from beyond Nebraska, answering the call to assist in a time of need and reinforcing the collective nature of the effort.
Source : unl.edu