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How Western Slope ranchers are dealing with damage from the Turner Gulch fire
7/31/2025 | 1m 52sVideo has Closed Captions
Ranchers in western Colorado deal with a completely changed landscape in a severe fire season.
For ranchers that have worked in the mountains and canyons south of Grand Junction for generations, a severe fire season has completely changed the landscape — burning pastures and plants that grazing cattle needed for food this summer. Video produced by Joshua Vorse, Rocky Mountain PBS.
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RMPBS News is a local public television program presented by RMPBS
RMPBS News
How Western Slope ranchers are dealing with damage from the Turner Gulch fire
7/31/2025 | 1m 52sVideo has Closed Captions
For ranchers that have worked in the mountains and canyons south of Grand Junction for generations, a severe fire season has completely changed the landscape — burning pastures and plants that grazing cattle needed for food this summer. Video produced by Joshua Vorse, Rocky Mountain PBS.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipThis is about where it came across at this all used to be, used to be lots of brush here Looking at it right now, it looks like a wasteland.
This is the Turner Gulch fire it started in the back of the canyon, and then it came over the hill with us.
We got the private ground here.
It's pretty black, and there ain't much left on it right now.
I'm Bryce Casto, this is my wife, Lisa Casto, and this canyon that we live in here operate out of is Unaweep Canyon.
Were cow-calf outfit, that's what we do, a cow-calf producer who had a fire come through.
A pretty rough one.
The cows right now are fine.
They're outside of the fire.
We got them kicked out of the outside of the fire, and they're wandering around being a cow.
And It depends on how much more the fire burns before we figure out whether we're going to be okay for the summer or whether we're going to have to do something else.
Because there ain't nothing to go to, they can't eat ashes.
But I don't think it's going to be so terrible that we can't handle it.
It burnt the post right out of the fence, pile of staples laying there, and the post is gone and the fence is on the ground.
So it burned roughly half our private acreage.
And then just out on top of the mountain is our cow camp.
It did burn it.
The cow camp is just where we can stay up there when we're tending to the cows.
It got way hot right there it just tore it up.
There's always something, but this one is a big deal.
I haven't dealt with fire, so I don't know exactly what we're up against or how fast it might come back.
This is probably the most detrimental thing that's happened to us.
Theres just, there ain't nothing left.
But I don't know, it's all about rebuilding now.
It's just build back.
They say build back better.
So I guess we'll try it.
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