“We’re grateful that we can be a part of it. It’s the Western way.”

The Lee fire burned more than 138,000 acres of grassland used by ranchers and wildlife in northwestern Colorado in August and September, affecting the livelihoods of dozens of ranchers and landowners on the Roan Plateau.

The fire destroyed prime grazing lands just ahead of the fall grazing season, laying waste to precious fields for livestock and wildlife and creating a problem with unknown consequences and impacts heading into winter.

However, one Colorado family, the Gottenborgs, lent a helping hand via a hay donation to fellow ranchers affected by the fifth largest wildfire in state history.

“They were hit pretty hard, a lot of folks up there,” Dave Gottenborg said of what the Lee fire did to the affected area in Rio Blanco County. “Some lost everything, a lot of folks lost some, but some lost it all.”

The Gottenborgs are the owners of Eagle Rock Ranch (ERR), a cattle and certified weed-free hay operation in Jefferson in Park County.

The family partnered with Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) and donated 36 tons (72,000 pounds) of hay to ranchers and landowners impacted by the Lee fire earlier this summer in northwestern Colorado near Meeker.

Gottenborg cuts hay for the ranch as well as on contract for the CPW, housing CPW hay in his stackyard in Park County.

In August, Gottenborg said his CPW contact called him saying he didn’t think they were going to use what was left over from the prior year and said Gottenborg could get rid of the CPW hay if he needed it out of his stackyard.

“I thought for a minute and said, ‘Why don’t we send it (the hay) to folks over at the Lee fire in Rio Blanco (County)?’ and I’ll be happy to match whatever we can put together from the CPW side of the stack.”

Gottenborg, with the help of Michael Blanck with the Habitat Partnership Program State Council in Colorado and Tom Knowles with CPW, found Casey and Heather Burke in the Piceance Creek area south of Meeker. Their ranch could accommodate a semi-truck driving in and out of their property, making it a great place to house the hay.

 “The more people I reached out to, the more people wanted to help,” Gattenborg said, including CEO Joe O’Dea of CEI Constructors.

O’Dea told Gattenborg his company could cover the semitruck’s fuel costs to get the hay out of Park County over Hoosier Pass and safely to the Burkes’ stackyard in Rio Blanco County.

“We hoped to do (the delivery) right before Thanksgiving, but we had a little bit of snow and so we pushed it back and we just got it done Friday and Monday,” Gottenborg said.

Gottenborg said the hay delivery might only be a drop in the bucket and will help only some when there is a lot of need in the affected area.

“It probably is a function of how many cattle or how many head they want to feed with it, and if they’re gonna mix it with natural forage or other types of supplement like a protein supplement,” he said. “Typically, a cow will eat somewhere around 30 pounds a day.”

Gottenborg also said the price of hay has been steep recently. According to what he heard from Casey, hay prices are upward of $200 per ton.

Gottenborg said he hopes his actions shine a spotlight on the continuing need for additional forage in the affected areas in northwestern Colorado.

“If people look around their stack yards and say, ‘Well, the winter’s been pretty mild so far, I think we’re going to have a little extra,’ they might consider getting a hold of Michael Blanck or Tom Knowles or Casey.”

“We’re grateful that we can be a part of it,” Gottenborg said. “We’re just a small part of it, that’s for sure, but it’s probably the collective efforts of everybody having an impact, not just one person. It’s the Western way.”