smoke over Battle Creek
“There’s a fire on Battle Creek.”
A phone call from Wendy, a Medicine Bow Forest Service Range Conservationist, this evening got my attention. We have three bands of sheep on their summer grazing permits in the Med Bow, in a forest of beetle-killed dead pines.
Pepe, Salomon and I hopped into the pickup and drove up to the Forest, not far from our Home Ranch, to give the sheepherders a heads up. Pepe was emphatic in his warnings because he had brought a band of sheep, nearly surrounded by fire, out of the Hinman Fire in 2002.
So far, the fire is burning in an area of rough dead timber, and is quite a ways from the sheep. If it doesn’t get out of hand, it will do a lot of good.
We found several Forest Service employees and two folks who have homes within the Forest boundaries keeping watch.
Larry and Jeff (homeowner) keeping an eye on the fire
Pepe recalling the Hinman Fire
Ladder Ranch
