DURKEE, Oregon — Before it was all said and done, the Durkee fire in Eastern Oregon burned almost 300 thousand acres last year, wreaking havoc for travelers but more importantly, putting ranchers in a very tough spot for this year.
Bert Siddoway has been ranching his entire life, but what happened here last summer may have taken a few years off his life. “That’s the worst fire behavior I’ve ever see," he said.
On the morning of July 17, Siddoway knew there was a storm coming in from the West — what he didn’t know was that a lightning strike was going to hit a nearby ridge. And that was the start of the Durkee Fire.
“I watched it hit," Siddoway said. "I’ve seen it when it was ten feet in a circle and by the time we got there, it wasn’t ten feet anymore. It was such a large fire that there’s a lot of cows that were displaced, everybody is looking for grass for new pastures.”
Siddoway is also chief of the local volunteer fire department, and he said he has never seen a fire so erratic because of the wind shifts.
“You can try to be ready at a certain time but when the fire behavior becomes a certain level there’s nothing you can do than move your cows and hope the gates open," Siddoway said.
I asked Siddoway because of the Durkee Fire, what will 2025 be like? “'25 for me is going to be we have to find new pasture and build four and five miles of fence that burned. It’s got to be fenced so I can use the other part.”
Simply put, fires come, grazing pastures go, and ranchers are left to make some serious business decisions as they move forward. But as Siddoway reminded me, ranchers are a tough bunch.
