Wheeler Soil and Water Conservation District

Wheeler County
Request: $25,000

Immediate seed purchase for nearly 1,300 miles of wildfire suppression dozer lines across Wheeler County from the Rowe Creek Complex, Shingle Fire, and multiple smaller incidents ignited July 15th and still burning as of 08/04/2026. USDA has programs for disaster recovery; however, funding for those programs will not be available for application until the next federal fiscal year (November) and actions won't be funded until spring of 2027. There is an immediate need to get seed on all burned areas; however, these disturbed corridors are among the most vulnerable areas on the burned landscape. Dozer lines remove vegetation, topsoil, and protective organic matter, leaving exposed soil that can rapidly erode or become invaded by weeds before native vegetation has a chance to recover. The first precipitation events after a fire are often the most erosive because the soil is bare and may be water repellent due to fire effects. Therefore, waiting until spring of 2027 could critically harm thousands of acres across vital rangeland. For rangeland fires, promptly seeding dozer lines is particularly important because these linear disturbances can become long-term invasion corridors. If invasive annual grasses establish along the line, they can spread into adjacent burned rangelands, increasing fine fuel continuity and making future fires more frequent and severe.