The North Dakota Stockmen’s Association and North Dakota Stockmen’s Foundation, together with the generosity of people from near and far, delivered $939,702.90 this month to cattle ranchers and landowners devastated by the October 2024 wildfires. The Stockmen’s groups kick-started the Out of the Ashes Wildfire Disaster Relief Fund with a $50,000 gift of their own and invited others to join them to support those who suffered serious losses in the wildfires that ignited across North Dakota last fall.
A combination of northwesterly winds gusting as high as 78 miles per hour and a very dry air mass fueled the fires that results in significant industry losses including fences, buildings, farmsteads, pasture, hay, stored feed and livestock. An estimated 120,000 acres were consumed. Sadly, the fires also claimed two human lives and seriously injured at least six.
“It’s still hard to imagine what these families went through,” said NDSA President Randy Schmitt, who ranches near Rugby, N.D. “The fires impacted their homes, their livestock, their communities, their whole world. There were so many heartbreaking stories that came out this disaster.”
At the same, there were also so many heartwarming stories that followed, said NDSF President Jason Leiseth, an Arnegard, N.D., rancher whose own cattle operation was narrowly spared in the fires. “The outpouring of care and concern was simply amazing,” he commented, noting the calls, letters and feed, supply and monetary donations that came in from across the United States. That generosity helped the Out of the Ashes Wildfire Disaster Relief Fund grow to nearly $1 million – the single largest disaster relief program the NDSA and NDSF have administered in their 17 years of partnership.
“Donations to the fund ranged from gifts from youth organizations and church groups to six-digit corporate donations,” Schmitt explained. “There were schools that donated their Red Ribbon Week proceeds, 4-H clubs that raised money through pancake breakfasts and the sale of harvest-time field meals, churches that turned over their fall bazaar proceeds and so many other inspiring examples of charity and benevolence. Every one of them made a difference and is sincerely appreciated. This wouldn’t have been possible without them.”
One of the disaster relief recipients said, “There are no words to express how grateful we are for this. [My husband] and I both had tears in our eyes when we received the disaster relief check in the mail. It was a huge relief to us – like letting out a big breath we had been holding in since this whole thing happened.”
Leiseth concluded, “We know that the losses were great and are hopeful that this program helps these families recoup, rebuild and rekindle hope for their future.”
North Dakota Stockmen’s Association news release
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