In testimony to state lawmakers, Dale Jenkins and his Panhandle peers shared the “hidden cost” of the wildfires.
Dale Jenkins stands inside one of his cattle pens on April 3 in Canadian. As the Smokehouse Creek fire approached his property, Jenkins and his family rushed to save around 100 heads of cattle before taking on the blaze from a tractor equipped with a water hose.— a weekly dispatch about the people, places and policies defining Texas, produced by Texas Tribune journalists living in communities across the state.
The hearings — meant to help understand how the Smokehouse Creek fire burned more than 1 million acres and killed two people and approximately 10,000 cattle earlier this year — voiced the fear Panhandle residents have about their future.“Historic homes and ranches burned to the ground — literally museums to our region and way of life. Genetics bred into cows over decades, and generations have been lost.
With the water sprayer on the front of his tractor, Jenkins fought the fire with several others in hopes of keeping some of the land safe. “Some of these little guys lost their ears and tails, and some of them have peeling burns,” Jenkins said. “We will try, but these orphaned calves will probably not work as breeding stock.”
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