'There's no catching up': Ranchers lose cattle as Laguna Fire grows in Santa Fe National Forest

By Alaina Mencinger [email protected]
​Copyright Santa Fe New Mexican, reprinted with permission

Adelaido Matinez, left, scans the tags of a group of cattle while visiting with Antonio Serrano on Monday afternoon near a newly burned portion of Santa Fe National Forest north of Gallina. Martinez said he had 39 cows and two bulls in the allotman and had found 35 cattle. Matt Dahlseid/The New Mexican

Cattle grazing in the Santa Fe National Forest north of Gallina are lost and injured after the Laguna Fire, now sitting at more than 14,000 acres, grew past its containment lines late last week and started a spot fire.

Members of the Vigil family, who have Forest Service grazing permits, searched for their lost cattle through ash-covered forest lands Sunday and Monday after fire tore through their grazing area.

The Vigil Ranch in Gallina, a Rio Arriba County community west of Abiquiú, is missing at least 75 head, said Veronica Vigil, a school administrator in Albuquerque. That’s more than half the family’s herd of approximately 120. All of the family’s bulls, worth about $5,000 a pop, are missing.

Many of the remaining cows are injured, Veronica Vigil said, some with burned hooves and, in some cases, scorched udders, making it impossible for calves to nurse. A video provided by the ranch shows a cow with a burned udder walking gingerly through the pasture on what appears to be injured hooves.
“A representative from the Forest Service yesterday kept asking us for a number,” Vigil said. “It’s all of them. It’s going to be a systematic impact on our family forever; we may never recover from this.”

From left, Debbie Vigil, Dominic Lopez and Alia Vigil hike up an ash-covered hillside of a newly burned area of Santa Fe National Forest on Monday. The Vigil family has been searching for several dozen missing head of cattle in the past two days. Matt Dahlseid/The New Mexican

The Vigil Ranch is one of several permittees missing cattle in an area scorched by the Laguna Fire. Their search for cattle comes as the Forest Service has warned of the potential for evacuations in the Chama River Canyon near Abiquiú, a popular area for camping, rafting and other outdoor recreation that also is home to a few dozen monks at the Monastery of Christ in the Desert.

The Southwest Area Incident Management Team 1 was brought in to take over the fire response, with a goal of full suppression — a shift from the initial plan for crews to manage the blaze but allow it to continue burning.

Wildfire balloons

​The Laguna Fire was ignited June 25 by a lightning strike.

Fire managers with the Santa Fe National Forest said they planned to manage the low-intensity fire, which was burning in an area previously thinned and treated with prescribed burns, in an effort to bring fire back to its historic role in the forest ecosystem.

A Forest Service web page says planned burns, and in some cases wildfires, can be useful for forest health and can prevent worse fires from occurring — under the right conditions. The “right fire at the right place at the right time” can reduce fuels, prevent the spread of disease and pests, and promote soil health by recycling nutrients.

But recent updates on the Laguna Fire show people in certain areas were warned to prepare for evacuation.

Between July 1 and July 14, the fire’s size had ballooned from 176 acres to more than 14,000. A Saturday update said a spot fire had been discovered Friday outside containment lines near Laguna Peak.

As of Sunday night, the 14,700-acre fire was 45% contained, down from 87% containment reported Thursday.

Santa Fe National Forest also announced Sunday it was putting Christ in the Desert under “set” evacuation status, urging residents to stay aware and informed, gather supplies and emergency contacts, and develop evacuation plans.

Nearby Gallinas Ranch was put under “go” status, which recommends people prepare for evacuation by loading supplies into their vehicle and opening livestock gates.

Cows and calves find an unburned patch of grass to graze on Monday in Santa Fe National Forest north of Gallina. Many cattle are still missing in the charred grazing allotment. Matt Dahlseid/The New Mexican

Those statuses were still in place Monday, although estimates of the fire’s size had dropped by almost 2,000 acres since Saturday, when it was believed to be more than 16,000 acres.

‘Dead cows all over’
The Vigil family, which has been ranching in the area since the 1800s, grazes cattle on a Forest Service allotment that was originally part of the San Joaquín Land Grant.

They feel they didn’t have sufficient warning to rescue their cattle.
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Veronica Vigil said she was first notified Saturday night, and the family quickly assembled Sunday morning. By then, many of their cows were already missing or injured.

“We’re finding dead cows all over,” said Jeff Vigil, who also was out searching the forest Monday. “It’s complete devastation. All the trees are dead, the grass is dead. They didn’t leave anything.”
A video of the area shows felled trees and a grayscale forest floor, covered with ash.

“We’re just running around, trying to catch up,” Jeff Vigil said. “But there’s no catching up with this devastation.”

By Monday afternoon, he said, searchers had found more than 10 dead cows. Dozens were still missing.

A calf with burned hooves struggles to lie down in the corral of the Vigil Ranch on Monday in Gallina. The Vigils said cattle with burned hooves can develop sepsis and that they will be treating the cattle with antibiotics. Matt Dahlseid/The New Mexican

“We’re missing 50 pairs — mother cows and calves,” he said. “We’re missing at least 100 animals.”
He was wrapping up the search to head to an afternoon meeting between permittees and Forest Service officials.
Another meeting on the fire was held in the community Monday evening.
Since the grazing area was damaged by the fire, Veronica Vigil said, her family was using their winter hay supply and buying additional hay to feed the remaining cattle.
In a Monday afternoon video update on the fire, Jayson Coil, an operation section chief for the Southwest Area Incident Management Team, said the priority was finding areas that require the most urgent response.

Veronica Vigil, left, and Debbie Vigil work together to fill cattle troughs with water Monday at the Vigil Ranch in Gallina. The family had found about 30 of their cattle Sunday in the burned area of Santa Fe National Forest where they graze their cattle. They estimated at least 50 pairs of cattle, mother cows and calves, remain missing. Matt Dahlseid/The New Mexican

“We identify the areas that are of highest value to the community and to the other landowners in the area, and that we’re prepared to take actions if needed, to protect those lands, if the fire goes beyond where we expect it to, especially with outflows from thunderstorms and some of the other things that we can expect this time of year,” Coil said.

He added the team would help permittees provide care for any cattle in the fire area.

The growth of the Laguna Fire comes as another lightning-ignited fire that was being managed by fire crews billowed out of control over the weekend in Arizona, destroying structures along the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs called for a federal investigation into the incident.

Jeff Vigil said he saw the Forest Service conduct a successful prescribed burn in the fall several years ago. But there’s been little moisture in the area recently.
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“They never told us to move our cows before they started this fire,” Julian Vigil said. “If they had told us, we could have moved them out in a day and we wouldn’t be having these problems.”
Staff writer Matt Dahlseid contributed to this report.