'It's a big family': Albertans give gift of hay to B.C. ranchers hit by wildfire

Some Albertans are coming to the rescue of ranchers in B.C.who lost much of their land in this summer's wildfires.

On Thursday, a truckload of Alberta hay bales headed out tothe RiskeCreek community near Williams Lake.

A second truckload left for B.C. on Saturday andLauren Dorion, horse manager at the Black Diamond Land &Cattle Company about 50 km south of Calgary, said she came up with the idea to donate after seeing ranchers in B.C. struggling to feed their animals.

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"Most of them are working day and night regardless ofthese fires still," Dorionsaid."So to then organize feed for your animals and try to get all that taken care of is just a really hard thing for them to do right now."

Dorion's sister KaitlynDorionis a farmer inRiskeCreekand saysthe donations will help families left with nothing to feed their livestock.

"We don't have pastures, we don't have any graze land for our animals anymore so the hay coming from Alberta is really, really, really appreciated right now," Kaitlynsaid.

Thousands of animals affected

Lauren Dorion said news of her charity grain drive spread to Alberta ranchers by word of mouth. Soon, 24 large hay bales and 275 bags of grain were sentwest in two shipments.

A number of Calgary companies lent equipment and personnel to the endeavour, includinga donated driver and truck from CalfracWell Services Ltd., a trailer from Trailer Wizards and 12 custom-built straps fromCanyon Rigging.

"We're really lucky out here in Alberta, we have a lot of really generous people and ranches and a lot of hay todonate," Lauren Dorionsaid.

KaitlynDorion said thousands of cattle and horses in the Riske Creek area are without food but the donations will go to those hit hardest by the fire.

Shehad her own run-in with the wildfires, which came dangerously close to her home on the day of her wedding, forcing her to cancel her nuptialsuntil a later date.

Lauren said the first shipment was donated to five families and the second shipment will help at least another 10 families.

Coming together

Barry Williams is the driver making the 24-hour round trip into B.C. andsaid the area around Williams Lake looks "post-apocalyptic."

"Everything was grey and dark andblack. All the trees and all the grass wascompletelyburnt," Williams said."It looked like grey and black sand everywhere all through the hills coming up pastCacheCreek all thewayup toWilliamsLake."

Williams said there were "lot of hugs" and"a lot of handshakes" when he delivered the first shipment.

Lauren Dorion said there aren't any plans for athirdshipment but that could change if B.C. ranchers continue to struggle.

GarthCleveland helped manage thelogistics of the donations and saidmany B.C. ranchers were forced to let their animals loose as the wildfires got closer to homesteads.

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Cleveland said farming communities band together when times get tough and he expects the donated feed will help wayward animals ifthey return to their burned-outpastures.

And he said if the roles were reversed, other farmers would help Alberta out too.

"It may not be you this year, but we've had droughts around here where there's not enough hay and people have donated hay into Alberta,"Cleveland said."It's a big family, really."

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