The Nebraska Sandhills Ranchers Fire Fund was recognized as the featured nonprofit at Gov. Jim Pillen’s Oct. 3 Husker football tailgate at the Governor’s Mansion.
The tailgate tradition highlights a Nebraska nonprofit during each home game. Mary Kay Robinson Boone of Oshkosh spoke on behalf of the fund. Cody and Naomi Loomis and their family of Bridgeport also attended.
The fund was organized to support ranchers affected by fires in the Nebraska Sandhills. It has received $1.8 million in cash donations, according to the organization. Checks totaling $1.2 million were distributed to ranchers June 1, and additional distributions are continuing.
Organizers said an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 semi loads of hay and feed have also been delivered to the region.
The aid followed the Morrill Fire, which swept across western Nebraska in late March. In May, Oshkosh-area rancher Joe Van Newkirk said winds near 70 mph drove the fire rapidly through the Sandhills.
“They said it traveled about 14 miles the first hour or something like that,” Van Newkirk said at the time. “With that kind of wind, there’s just no getting ahead of it.”
Van Newkirk said the fire stretched roughly 70 miles in less than 24 hours and at one point formed a line about 40 miles wide as it moved toward the North Platte River Valley. Ranchers used disks, water tanks and fire rigs to protect homes, livestock and communities.
By May, the immediate firefighting effort had shifted to a prolonged recovery. Van Newkirk said burned hillsides looked “like a moonscape,” with wind moving loose sand across the region. He said some burned rangeland could remain unusable for at least a year because grass had not sufficiently regrown amid dry conditions.
The fund said ranchers continue to face higher feed costs and a slow-healing prairie. The organization expects its distributions to continue through the end of the year and beyond.