Evaluating long-term effects from recent Panhandle wildfires

Farmers and ranchers struggle to recover financially from recent panhandle wildfires that damaged their crops and infrastructure along with forcing a relocation of cows and calves.

Two wildfires burned more than 8,200 acres of pasture and cropland in Scottsbluff and Gering. The Panhandle of Nebraska is an open, dryland where fires easily start in canyons from wind and brush. More than 11,000 acres burned from wildfires this past year due to severe drought and heavy winds that caused brush to ignite. Wildfires often result in financial peril for landowners and ranchers. For many, it takes years...