In February of 2024, wildfires decimated approximately 2 million acres across the Texas Panhandle; our nation’s capital for cattle. These fires destroyed generations of cattle, killing thousands. Many ranchers lost everything, including their entire herd and livelihoods. Other ranchers face the extreme cost and manpower needed to repair infrastructure required to support their remaining cattle. Thousands of miles of critical cattle fence were wiped out which included cattle feed. This must be replaced before the cattle can return. The cost to replace fencing alone is upwards of $20,000 per mile. Leased lands where remaining cattle were relocated is adding a heavy cost burden in addition to everything else. To rebuild quickly, it has turned into a neighbor helping neighbor / rancher helping rancher situation.
Team ROWW activated a response plan to deploy to the Smoke House
fire in the Pampa/ Miami, TX area. We partnered with Lee Wells, a rancher from the Dallas, TX area. Lee had been delivering and coordinating cattle feed to the Panhandle immediately after fires. We quickly devised an intense mission to install an ambitious goal of 5 miles of USDA five strand cattle fence covering 3 separate cattle ranchers. This would include removing 5 miles of the destroyed fencing. Deployment Operations Lead, Rob Tucker and Merit Draven along with volunteers from around the country rendezvoused in Pampa, TX on April 21st.
Through team ROWW’s partnership with Lowes we obtained a portion of fencing supplies, leather gloves etc, from their Amarillo location. BBARC of Amarillo supplied fencing and provided the bulk of the hard-to-find fencing material at a discounted rate. Both Lowes and BBARC delivered to the job site free of charge. Bobcat of Amarillo DONATED two skid steers with needed attachments for the mission. Encounter Church Amarillo donated a truckload of snacks, water and gator aid.
Over the 11 day deployment, Team ROWW volunteers were able to demo 5 miles cattle fence, clear burned trees and vegetation impeding on 1.5 miles of fence line, set 5 miles of T-posts, run 5 miles of stringer / ground wire with “dead mans” installed throughout. ROWW was able to fully complete 4 miles of cattle fence to USDA specifications and helped facilitate the completion of the remaining 1 mile.’
