(image credit - Kelly Allen/YouTube)

By Michael Reeve

RANCHER RECOVERY

B.C. ranchers still struggling to recover from floods and fire

Jul 12, 2022 | 4:42 PM

KAMLOOPS — After the devastating 2021 wildfire season, and the November floods, ranchers in B.C. are only just getting back on their feet. Ranchers across the province were forced to evacuate themselves and their livestock only to return to massive property damage.

General Manager of the B.C. Cattleman’s Association Kevin Boon noted that they only just received disaster financial assistance funding from the province. One of the biggest steps is getting things growing again, which is now moving along.

“When it comes to the infrastructure, that has been slow. A lot of the processes are taking time to get in place, fences are starting to get rebuilt. We are in a five year program for that, so it is going to take some time to get that going. The big thing is, we are back at it, we got some rain, we got some hay growing to replenish what we fed up last year. So things are looking a lot brighter now then they did at this time a year ago,” said Boon.

Boon said he would rather live through 10 fires compared to just a single flood at the extent seen in November. Unlike the fire damage, ranchers effected by the floods are still dealing with ongoing issues relating to the damaged river banks, and what the surge of water did to their fields.

Two and Out

PETERS: Whether building up or tearing down, Kamloops is what you make it

13h ago

Sound Off

SOUND OFF: How to reduce food waste in Kamloops during the festive season

20h ago

Looped In

LOOPED IN WITH NIKKI OMEN: December 12, 2024

Dec 12, 2024

“We can’t rebuild what is gone and a lot of these guys lost 10, 20, 30 acres, some maybe 100 acres of land. That land is now somewhere down in Sumas Prairie. We can’t put that back, so how do we rebuild that?”

“So that is one challenge there. The other challenge is getting that stream bed and water running the way it’s suppose to,” stated Boon.