Utah official to seek help for ranchers and farmers

ST. GEORGE — Utah's commissioner of agriculture vowed on Thursday to help several dozen ranchers and farmers after a massive wildfire swept through miles of rangeland in Millard County, killing cattle and scorching the ground.

"We have about 40 ranchers affected in the Milford Flat area," Commissioner Leonard Blackham said in an interview with the Deseret Morning News. "They know they take the risk, but we will do what we can. We'll get them back in business again."

Blackham was in St. George attending the semiannual Utah Farm Bureau convention, along with other elected officials, ranchers, farmers and representatives from various state and federal agencies that work with the state's agricultural businesses.

Among the topics addressed during Thursday's session was a panel discussion on the future of agriculture and politics in Utah, growth population models and climate change. The convention continues today, with sessions that include discussions on water rights, nuisance claims and immigration.

Sen. Dennis Stowell, R-Parowan, who is chairman of the Senate Natural Resources Appropriation Committee, said a supplemental appropriation of $8 million was approved this year to help pay for damage caused by wildfires last year.

"That'll be an issue in the future, too," he promised the group at the convention. "We also appropriated $1 million to reseed burned out areas."

However, none of that money will go toward ranchers and farmers whose cattle herds and rangelands are in the path of this week's wildfires, he noted.

"We already had cattle ranchers hauling cattle into their winter range, but now that's all gone," Stowell said. "What will they do this winter? There's nothing left and not a lot of summer feed left, either. Hay is expensive. It'll break some of our ranchers. We need a disaster declaration."

Blackham said a federal disaster declaration is already being sought. An assessment of the damage caused by wildfires burning throughout the state is now under way by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency, Blackham said.

"That appraisal should be in shortly, and then we'll send a communication request to Governor Huntsman to seek a disaster declaration from the secretary of agriculture," he added.

If a disaster declaration is approved, which Blackham fully expects to occur, it would activate several USDA programs that could help ranchers and farmers recover from their losses.