Nebraska rancher details aftermath of the Morrill Fire in personal essays

Ainslie Wilson isn’t a stranger to fire, growing up on the dry and hot land of Australia. Her family there recently battled fires in January, and just two months later on the other side of the world in Arthur County, Nebraska, so was she.

On March 12, the largest wildfire in the state’s history ignited in the county Ainslie has called home for the past 20 years. It raced for miles over the course of several days until landowners and fire crews could get a handle on it. Eventually, it burned more than 600,000 acres, killed an Arthur County woman, burned acres of forage for cattle in the middle of calving season and left mounds of sand without any cover.

Wilson and her family lost a bit of land and fencing to the fire, but she said many of her neighbors had much of their land and ranch infrastructure stolen by the fire. It’s proving to be a long road of recovery – both physically and mentally – for the rancher’s family and many others who were affected by the Morrill Fire and others, including the 129,000-acre Cottonwood Fire, 36,000-acre Ashby Fire, 35,000-acre Road 203 Fire, 17,000-Anderson Bridge Fire and the 14,000-acre Minor Fire.

The rancher has been sharing details behind the emotional aftermath – and the hope that many are finding in their pockets of community – through detailed narratives on her Facebook page called “Tumbleweed.”

Jackie Ourada spoke with writer and Arthur County rancher Ainslie Wilson about the aftermath of the historic March wildfires on the Nebraska Update podcast. The interview was edited for length.

Jackie Ourada: Something that really came across in one of your pieces was how on edge this can make someone feel. You spoke about living with this trauma and how it can spike back up when you smell a whiff of smoke in the middle of the night. Can you tell me about how, even though this was weeks ago now, how that still can sit with you?

Ainslie Wilson: Even yesterday, my husband and I were driving in the pickup. I think we'd just been out feeding, and we were driving back to the house, and we had the windows down, and he slowed down, and he sniffs. He's like, ‘Do you smell smoke?’ And I go, ‘I do kind of smell smoke.’ And it just kind of brings everything right back to you. You get that whiff of smoke, and you start looking, and you start feeling all those feelings that you had, and it wasn't anything. I think when we got back to the house, we realized that we still had a couple of coats in the pickup that we had worn fighting fire, and that's what we were getting the smell from. But there are so many in the area. In fact, I'm sure everybody out here – you still look at the horizon, you're still smelling for smoke. Even now when the phone rings… Is it a fire? Yesterday was another red flag day, so there was a very high fire risk. And the winds come up and there's no humidity, and you know that if anything starts, it's just going to take off and it's going to be out of control.

Ourada: I've heard this come up now, and it looks like you have too – going off of your writing – is how tough it may be right now, but eventually there will be beautiful grass and fire is beneficial, but I'm sure that's hard to hear right now as someone who's lost land and knows neighbors who have lost so much.

Wilson: I have seen firsthand how regenerative fire can be, especially just in January, when my family's place in Australia was burnt out by wildfires, and they've had some good rains, and it has come back, and it is beautiful. That grass just looks like carpet and it's lovely. And we're seeing a real range of responses in the land, in the grasses, to this particular fire. In some places it was so hot, it has burnt all plant material from the hills. If you get west of where we are, about eight miles, nine miles… I think it was so hot that there is nothing left, and the hills are just sand and it's blowing. And to go and tell someone that's living in the middle of that how wonderful fire is and how regenerative it is… it’s not helpful. Some places are recovering and doing quite well, but there are other areas that are not and I don't think anyone has seen fires on this scope, this big, this destructive, ever. I don't think.

Ourada: The post that got me emotional was one of your most recent ones. You wrote after, I think there was an informational town hall event in Arthur County, and you said everyone learned a lot, learned a lot of programs with acronyms and letters and numbers. But at the end of it, you all had a meal together, and you go on to write:

"This might be what gets a lot of people through, not the rain, which we can't rely on, and not the grass, which isn't there.

But those who show up to fence, the ones that offer to take your cows, the others who bring a load of hay.

The ones that call.

Not because they need anything. They're just wondering how you're doing."

Can you explain how this has brought some bittersweet emotions?

Wilson: Community support has been the most positive, incredible outcome of the whole deal. It's everybody coming together, wanting to help, wanting to know what they can do. And that ranges from everyone to friends from next door, who just stop in and say, ‘How are you doing?’ The friends on the other side of the county who just send a text and say, ‘How are you today?’ The people you don't know who show up literally with a trailer full of fence posts. And load them in your yard. I've never met this bloke before, and it's like, ‘Well, I wanted to do something for you. So here you are. Here are some fence posts.’ That is – one friend said – like the silver lining of these disasters is that it brings everybody together, and it's a wonderful feeling to know that you live in a community that is so helpful and so willing to come together.

The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services is urging anyone who needs assistance after the wildfires to reach out to its offices.