Cally Hale first heard about the fire at the Black Canyon National Park via texts from concerned friends and family. Hale, who works at Valley Food Partnership in Olathe, had been in meetings and was unaware of the threat looming back home.
"I just got flooded with text message asking me if I was okay or is everything all right on the farm? And I was like, what's going on?" she wondered.
She left work early on Thursday, July 10th and headed home where she could see the smoke plum threatening the area. Once home, she gathered with family members seeking more information and rapidly deploying a plan.
“We got the evacuation notice right as I was pulling up to the house. And so, you know, I had about ten, fifteen minutes to go through the house and get documents. At that point, we didn't have information about the perimeter of the fire on Watch Duty app or the county app or anything. So it was a lot of like miscommunication. I think just as a family, we didn't know what was going on. And so that that first day I think was probably the hardest for me mentally," she said.
Hale is a co-owner of Western Heritage Farms, a multi generational ranch located only a few miles from the iconic national park east of Montrose, Colorado. The ranch’s main business is raising cattle and is divided into three separate parcels of land, all listed on fire map evacuation zones.
“ At this point, I think we're about less than three miles from fire for both at both sites, so maybe a little bit closer at the upper place."
Family members with the help of Montrose County neighbors began relocating cow/calf pairs from the property. Fortunately, the family is still able to access their properties and take care of the remaining chickens and hogs left on the farm. She said they decided to shelter some of the livestock in place to reduce stress.
“ Luckily, we didn't have to move the chickens or the pigs because of how the fire lines worked and the the containment they have. We were able to keep those animals in their spaces and keep them less stressed out, which is a really big benefit for us. We believe in a low stress kind of lifestyle for the animals, and we were luckily able to just, um, rely on community to get everybody moved around where they were safe."
As for stress, the young rancher was candid about her need to reach out for mental health support when the load was too much to bear.
Hale, said there was one point where she broke down and cried on the roadside just outside of Montrose, “You know, a lot of us are displaced right now. The emotional toll of that is really impactful. And so it's really important to know that there are free resources for mental health."
Displaced farmers and ranchers can reach out to Colorado’s mental health line at 988; Colorado State University’s Agrability network offering free counseling sessions and AgWell through Rocky Mountain Farmers Union.
"All three of those, really, those resources are just so important in times of high stress like this. And I just think it's it's really important that we reach out to those kind of places because it is it's really hard to when you're feeling so alone, even if when your family is rallying around you for you to take care of yourself mentally," said the young rancher.
"You know, if I could, if I could send a message to anybody that's displaced or anybody that's experiencing stress right now, it's like, make sure you're taking care of yourself," said Hale, who is hopeful that the fire will soon be out and life will return to normal sooner rather than later.
A staunch advocate of the Montrose County ag community, Hale shared this message with the Montrose Community.
"It's so important for us to rally together and be a community and support each other. And, you know, we've fared fairly well in this case. I just want to thank every firefighter. I'm so grateful for them. My last bit of kind of knowledge here is just to say thank you. And thank you so much for supporting each other in this time. It really means a lot."
