(plane roaring) - Friday afternoon on September 4th when the Bridger foothills fire first sparked.

Authorities suspect that lingering heat from a lightning strike days earlier caused the fire.

By the end of Friday, only 400 acres had burned.

By Saturday, strong winds spread the fire to an estimated 7,000 acres.

The Gallatin county Sheriff's office issued evacuation orders to residents near the fire and recommended all residents of the canyon evacuate voluntarily.

By now, the Bridger foothills fire has burned 8,224 acres and 28 homes.

However, Bridger canyon is home to more than just people.

In the evacuation, ranchers and residents from the area had to shuttle hundreds of cattle, horses, and other livestock from their properties as the fire jumped roads and scoured hillsides.

I'm joined now by Grace Nutting.

An MSU student studying criminology and a Bozeman resident who helped evacuate livestock during the fire.

Grace, thank you so much for joining us.

So how did you hear about this and how did you get involved?

- I originally saw the fire from town and then kind of through Facebook, the Gallatin county Sheriff's office, and a few other organizations sharing updates on Facebook and stuff.

- You have a lot of experience with horses, but have you ever evacuated animals before?

- I have never, no, this is the first time.

- And so what prepared you for this experience?

- I would say just kind of in general, the horse community and the ranching community kinda just has a unwritten rule that everyone would help each other.

And I think that kind of prepared the - And when most people see plumes of smoke, they run the other way.

But you went into the area to help.

Why did you do this?

- It didn't really cross my mind, not going to help.

I have horses myself.

So I just knew how those people felt and I needed to help as much as I could 'cause I know they'd do the same for me.

- And what was the actual process like in the moment of evacuating the animals?

- It was loading up the trailer and figuring out where they needed us and where animals needed to be evacuated.

And if anybody was stuck and stuff like that.

- How many animals did you end up evacuating?

- We evacuated three horses and then we assisted getting cattle out of the road and down to the pens where they needed to be to be loaded on the cattle trucks.

- And what was ultimately the most impactful part of this experience for you?

- Just seeing the community.

I mean, it was unbelievable.

When you turned onto the Jackson Creek road area, there was trailers lined up for probably a mile or two just ready to help.

And the whole community was just really touching and cool to see everybody coming together.

- Thank you so much for joining us Grace.

In the aftermath of the fire, many ranchers lost the resources they needed to continue their business.

However, the community stepped in to help restore that which was lost.

We spoke with Bridger canyon resident and agricultural relief coordinator, Holley Woosley Vennes and cattle producer Kent Mueller about the ongoing process.

- Oh, Friday night I checked it out and it was, you know, just kind of smoldering in the rocks.

And by the time the wind picked up Saturday, it was pretty well too late to get everything out of there.

The experience was pretty horrible.

It was hot, black, ash raining down on you.

- [Interviewer] How many cattle do you think you lost in total?

- 12 so far.

- [Interviewer] 12?

- Yeah.

- You see it and you know that it's burning over people that you work with and know, and that's scary.

'Cause you know that they're losing, you don't know what they're losing.

You just see this big plume and you know it's not good and you want to get in and help them.

But then at the same time you know that it could be running at you just as fast and so you want to get in and get your cattle moved.

So my involvement is my family ranch is on the far end of Bridger canyon.

So for awhile we thought the fire might actually get to our end of the canyon.

Fortunately, they were able to between the rain and everything else, they kinda got a line around it.

But then there became a need.

People needed hay, needed pasture.

Just needed somebody to kind of organize some stuff.

So there wasn't 50 contacts.

So I was asked by Jared Kaplan if that was something I could facilitate.

And Annabel Morgan and I decided we could so we jumped in and here I am.

Ranchers in general aren't necessarily the greatest about asking for help.

So it kind of needed to be a producer.

Somebody that understands how ranching works in that.

To be able to say like, "Hey, I know you don't wanna ask for help, but what are your needs?"

So right off the bat, our needs were hay.

We had several ranchers that lost an entire year's worth of hay and they also lost pasture.

And then the third biggest need that we saw was fencing.

Fencing is something that's not covered under any ranch insurance policy.

It's been really neat.

Bozeman started as a cow town, and Bozeman has really gotten really far away from those roots.

And as a producer here in the Gallatin valley, I feel a lot of times that Ag isn't welcomed and it's very misunderstood.

And so it's been a really neat experience to be able to share ranching with people that don't understand it and explain why we do things.

But it's also been neat to watch non agriculture Bozeman come in and support producers.

- [Interviewer] How has the community stepped in, as you've seen it?

- Like Holly said about every way you could think of.

You know, financial donations, hay, fence supplies for the people up there.

You know, different portable panels to keep the elk off the haystacks.

And really any way they could, whether, you know, they had something they own like the hay or buying stuff or giving money.

They were willing to help - Bob Morton of Green mountain Red Angus.

Bob and his family have a ranch in Bridger canyon and near the town of Three Forks.

Amidst the fire, the Morton's evacuated 550 head of cattle.

Luckily, the fire stopped only three quarters of a mile from the Morton's ranch.

Bob, thank you for joining us.

- [Bob] Thank you.

So Bob, what did it take?

- Glad to be with you.

- Oh, yes.

Thank you.

So what did it take to evacuate 550 cattle?

- [Bob] You know, it took a lot of coordination and it just took a lot of kind souls to come up and help.

We literally, at noon, we had no concerns whatsoever.

I was actually out of state myself.

I was in central Wyoming and I talked to my wife at noon and everything was fine.

And at two o'clock I came back into service again and my phone just blew up with texts and voicemails and people asking if they could help.

And so I quick called my wife to see what was going on.

And they were in the process of starting to gather cattle right then.

And I started heading for home.

And by the time I got home at 10 o'clock at night, there was all 550 head was gone.

Basically they were loading the last of them as I pulled into the yard.

We called the guy who does our normal truck driving and he immediately dropped what he was doing and gathered up five trucks and came that way.

And there was a whole bunch of just people with stock trailers parked down near the Muhlenberg school.

My wife went down and talked to the sheriff and said, "Can these people come help?"

And most of the people we didn't know.

We had no idea who they were.

Some of them we did, some of them were friends of ours and both customers of mine that were there to help.

But there was people who just had a horse trailer and wanted to try and help out.

And we let them.

They came up, we had almost 30 people with stock trailers and we got everything loaded up and all hauled back down here to Three Forks to the feedlot.

And had everything here by 10 o'clock at night.

- Wow, what an example of the community coming together.

How did that make you feel and your family feel to see all of that support in such a dire situation?

- We felt that's pretty cool.

It was, yeah.

You know, I mean there was like I say, there was a lot of these people.

We have no idea who they were.

My son's girlfriend came home with the first load so she could be here at the feed lot to make sure that everybody got put in the right places that the right calves went with the right cows and all of that.

And she tried to get the names and contact info of everybody.

And there was names I recognized, but there's half a dozen names probably at least, that I have no idea who these people are or were, but they just wanted to help out.

And I thought that was pretty cool that they would step up.

- That's incredible.

How are your animals doing now?

And how is your family?

- [Bob] You know, our animals are doing fine.

One of the things y'all was worried about a little bit with heavy smoke is respiratory illnesses.

We've actually, we weaned all of the calves and we've got them here at home.

We sell breeding stock.

So we keep all of the calves through past yearling time at least.

And I was a little concerned we might have some respiratory disease with all of the smoke inhalation, but I've not treated a single animal for smoke inhalation or for any other respiratory diseases.

And actually all of the adult mother cows are all back up on Jackson Creek road now.

- Oh, that's great.

And you helped Kent Mueller immediately after the fire.

What's the recovery process look like for him and other ranchers in the area?

- [Bob] Well, that would probably be a better question for Kent.

But yeah, we helped him for three days.

The very next day, Sunday, my son and I went up there and gathered up.

He had 32 pair and two bulls, I believe up there.

And the area he was in definitely burned over.

We found most of those cows had actually broken out and they were standing on the highway.

And we found somebody had a little round corral for their horses.

And we were able to kind of make a makeshift loading area.

And we got those cattle loaded up and hauled them by corrals over on Jackson Creek road where other people were waiting to haul them home.

And then the day after that, and the day after that, which would have been what I guess, Monday and Tuesday, we just spent time riding, looking for the remaining ones that we couldn't find.

And he did lose a pretty good handful.

He lost all about a dozen animals I want to say, or 14.

I can't remember the exact number, but a pretty good number.

And there was some that had significant burns on their feet and significant, you know like burn marks down, stripes down their back where they obviously been running through the timber and and burned themselves trying to get away.

And those animals are gonna have certainly an uphill battle.

But I spoke with Kent the other day and he said he's keeping a very close eye on them to make sure they don't get any infections.

'Cause they definitely will.

My brother-in-law was part of a huge fire back in 2006 over at Big Timber.

And he said really watch them about two weeks after the fires when you'll start seeing some major infection set in and some of the cattle will go septic and need to be put down.

In speaking with Ken, he did not have to do that.

He just kept a really close eye on them and get the antibiotics in them and kept them healthy.

- I hope they all recover.

Let's talk about the process of recovering the land.

You studied range management here at MSU.

What do you see as the recovery process of the range land in Bridger canyon?

- [Bob] Well, that's a tough question to answer very simply.

It depends is probably the best way to answer that.

the grassland itself will be fully recovered next year.

The land that's got Sage brush in it, if that Sage brush burned hot, it could burn the crowns of some of those grass plants which could create some issues.

There might be some more problems with invasive species like cheat grass, brome, and things like that.

The timbered areas are where the longer recovery periods are gonna be seen.

Those areas may take decades to recover.

And again, just going back to a previous experience at my brother-in-law's place over out at Big Timber.

You know, now looking at it 14 years after the fire, his range land is in actually very good condition.

And actually is the other thing that was kind of a surprising benefit, was the surface water.

There was quite a little more surface water, there are springs running that hadn't run in decades and decades and decades.

He had springs literally a month after the fire went through in 2006 that he had never seen in his lifetime.

His dad who was 90 at the time, remembered seeing them as a little kid.

So I would anticipate that there will probably be some more surface water, of course, with all of the ash and everything else, there's going to be, you know, there's gonna be a lot of turbidity in that water.

And so the water quality is gonna be pretty poor for a year or two especially during runoff periods.

But you know, in the long run, I think, you know, and especially with, you know, kind of some of the more modern forestry practices and range practices, I think everything will recover.

It's just gonna take time and it's gonna take a tremendous amount of resources both financial and physical resources to get that to happen.

- Well, Bob, thank you so much for joining us and sharing your expertise and your experience, and I wish you good luck in your recovery of your family's land.

- [Bob] Thank you.

- After the frenzy of the evacuation, many residents didn't know what was next.

In the informational limbo, Jackson Creek resident and evacuee, Jared Kaplan, stepped up to coordinate the relief efforts and help counsel those affected by the event.

We caught up with Kaplan at a fundraising event last week at the Bozeman Spirits distillery to discuss what's happened and what's next for Bridger canyon residents.

- I'm Jared Kaplan.

I am a resident of Bridger canyon up in Jackson Creek and we're selling shirts for the fire victims, the fire relief, and also the Bridger canyon fire department.

So 12:30, we saw the plume.

You know, right next to them and we're down in our field and we're kind of, me and my dad are kind of down there and oh crap, you know, let's figure it out.

And so we started packing up just a little stuff.

And then three o'clock man, that plume just, the wind kicked up and it came straight for us.

And I looked at dad and I said we should probably load up and get ready.

Sheriffs came in at 3:30.

Just get out now it's right at your door.

And we did, we hopped out and we took my two pigs, the dogs, the three kids, my parents.

And we hopped out, made it right out of the driveway and good 'ole Montana, we pull right out of the driveway and there's 400 head of cattle in the middle of Jackson Creek.

And so we just slowed down about a mile an hour.

It took about 45 minutes to get out of the canyon.

Morton, he had all his head of cattle and the Red Angus in the middle of the Jackson Creek trying to get them out of there.

And it was just, it was laughable.

It was funny.

It was exciting, but it was also like, holy crap, there's a fire behind us.

But Morton came up on us side-by-side, We're good, you know, and he went up to see where the fire was and he was like, "It's really far away."

And we get to the gateway and everything's all right with our friends.

Saturday night, we found out about the Facebook page.

And then Sunday morning we woke up and we were looking at the fire maps all night and there was a big yellow dot in our house.

And we had a good cry and thought that was it.

Our house is gone.

So we woke up Sunday morning and started going down to the canyon.

And I just found that Facebook page in the middle of the night on Saturday.

And I put a post on there just stating that, "Hey, if anybody needs anything, we're headed up Jackson Creek right now."

And a bunch of people started messaging me, "Hey can you put eyes on this address?"

You know, whatever, whatever.

I was like, "Absolutely."

So I was like, I'm gonna want to make sure that my house is okay first.

And so we did, and my house was fine, thank God.

I started, me and my wife got in the car with the kids and we started going to all the addresses and taking pictures and telling people, "Hey, your house is here and you're good."

And Monday comes around and I get a call from Co-Ed, Red Cross, some other entities that were disaster relief.

And like, "Who are you?

What are you doing?

We're getting calls about this Jared guy."

And I was like, "I'm just a resident.

Like, I'm just a volunteer.

Like why what's going on?"

And they're like, "Well, it sounds like they want you to be like the voice and help out all the relief victims of the all the total loss or displaced.

Like, do you want to do something like that?"

And I said, "Absolutely."

Working with (indistinct), Red Cross, Salvation Army, Co-ed.

I mean, HRDC and (indistinct) a way, like, it's been a relief almost.

Because doing this on the other side as a paramedic, you don't see this cohesive community coming together.

And that was a big reason for me too is I always saw people getting taken advantage of.

Hey, a contractor comes on your property and you're looking through ashes.

"Hey, give me 20 grand and we'll come out and blah, blah, blah."

And they get taken advantage of, you know?

They don't know the difference.

So I really wanted to guide them in those certain steps to be able not to be able to get taken advantage of.

The overwhelming support of this community has been humbling.

It's just been absolutely amazing.

Everyone's giving what they have, you know?

If your house burned down or your fencing burnt down, there's a neighbor with fencing and posts going right to it.

I mean, it's just the community who's just coming together in a way that I've never seen before in my life.

It's just been outstanding.

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