The Lee fire burned more than 137,000 acres of land southwest of Meeker, Colorado this summer.

Some of the land charred was prime grazing land ranchers and land-users utilize for livestock feeding and wildlife rely on throughout the year.

As relief efforts continue, ranchers and officials with the Colorado Parks and Wildlife, have made strides in reseeding, delivering donated hay and looking at utilizing new technologies in the area affected by the fire.

Earlier in December, one ranching family — the Gottenborgs from Jefferson, Colorado in Park County — donated 72,000 pounds of hay to ranchers in need of livestock feed.

That donation was utilized the best it could be, according to Tom Knowles with CPW.

“The donated hay was provided to at least two different landowners within the Piceance Basin, who had lost a portion of their hay crop due to the flash flooding that occurred after the Lee fire,” Knowles said in an email to The Denver Gazette. “The hay will help those livestock producers feed their cattle through the winter and spring of 2026.”

According to Knowles, the main goals of CPW and the White River Habitat Partnership Program (WRHPP) were to assist private landowners with immediate short-term needs first, which included replacement of lost hay and or rebuilding of hay stockyards that were lost in the fire.

However, Knowles said there was no intention of feeding elk or deer this winter with donated hay.  

Knowles also said CPW and WRHPP are “focused on long-term wildlife habitat reclamation” of critical wildlife habitats on both public and private lands, including but not limited to:

• Reseeding of critical winter range habitats with custom sagebrush seed mixes that benefit both livestock and wildlife

• Replacement of burned water source infrastructure that benefits both wildlife and livestock, with that practice being a high priority in 2026

Fencing in the burn scar was deeply affected by the fire, too, where several miles were potentially lost forever, according to various reports from ranchers and fire officials.

“Replacement of key boundary fences on both private and public lands, but only where absolutely necessary with the requirement that any new fencing be built with wildlife-friendly specifications, is also a priority for CPW,” Knowles said.

The cost of rebuilding permanent fencing is extremely high — $30,000-plus per mile, according to Knowles.

CPW has roughly $500,000 available in its Habitat Partnership Program for relief efforts.

A starting solution proposed by CPW and WRHPP is that only the most critical boundary fences be rebuilt, however, virtual fencing technology could be utilized as well in order to keep long-term costs down while generating positive impacts toward wildlife.

“We are also encouraging landowners and public land management agencies to consider converting over to virtual fencing where opportunities exist,” Knowles said. “WRHPP has funded multiple virtual fencing projects and is a strong proponent of this relatively new technology.”

According to Knowles, virtual fencing can also reduce the amount of permanent fencing that negatively impacts wildlife movement and passage across the landscape.

WRHPP will also continue to provide pond cleaning vouchers and noxious weed control vouchers to landowners who were impacted by the fire as well.

“WRHPP will also promote the use of selective herbicides designed to control invasive annual grasses on parcels of land that have not been reseeded and that are at risk of being taken over by cheatgrass and other invasive annual grasses after the Lee Fire,” Knowles said.

In the late fall, CPW completed reseeding of 1,085 acres of critical winter range habitat within portions of Oak Ridge State Wildlife Area with custom sagebrush seed mixes designed specifically for wildlife, according to Knowles.

WRHPP also collaborated with five private landowners to reseed 1,300 acres of critical winter range habitat that burned along the Highway 13 corridor, south of Meeker.

CPW doesn’t expect to see the impact this has had on post-fire recovery until spring 2026, when those custom seed mixes begin to germinate.