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[Jesse Buhler]: We’ve experienced four natural disasters in the past 7 years, so we’ve had experiences like this before. We had a fire in 2018, and then a mudslide in 2019 set up by that previous year. We’ve gained an understanding about how to operate during those times. This one was a little bit more unique for us because it started small. The Forest Service was sort of lacking resources, so even though we called it in, it took a while for them to get on it, and so we ended up having some of our team go up and put out the initial fire. Outfitters went up the first day, got it somewhat put out—or at least what we thought was put out—come back down, I did some of our sort of daily chores of that day, and as I’m coming back into Grandjean, it kicked back up.
First thing first, we had to get all of our animals out. We had to get all the horses and all the tack and everything like that, so we stayed, we kind of did it in that sort of methodical, whole staging of like, “Let’s get the equipment and the horses out.” We took that first day to do that, and then the second day, the 29th, personnel and guests, so it was very smooth. Nobody was panicked or anything like that because it was just so far away, and it progressed after that.
So, the broader impact was it affected people’s summer homes. Some of these folks had, you know, some of these places were built in the 60s, so, you know, coming up on 60, 70 years of families being in these places, and they’ve lost that, so there’s devastation there. The lodge side of things—we lost a couple of structures, our yurts, and they weren’t total losses, but when it burns through the foundation and things like that, like half burns, it’s pretty much a total loss because it’s no longer safe. Infrastructure for us was pretty much toast, so our power, our water, and—and then obviously, we need all of those things to operate.
I think for the future it could be potentially, you know, really great for Grandjean. I think it’s going to do a couple of things. I think it’s going to bring more ponderosa in there, it’s going to bring more grassland in, and I think it’s going to bring more animals in too, which—which is great because people want to see a lot of wildlife there. And I think that’s one of the silver linings with this whole thing is like Grandjean itself needed that fire. Unfortunately, it’s terrible for our business, but realistically, like, we are operating in—again, you know—on the edge of the wilderness, so it needed it, and I think ultimately it’s going to be healthy for it. I think we all have a passion for that area and a passion for nature, you know, really fostering that. And I’m a dad—I have two twin two-year-old girls, and watching them experience that nature is just, it means the world to me.
The human intervention portion is something that we’re understanding more of and how it can be helpful. I think there’s—there’s sometimes a general understanding that you just kind of let it go, and to a large degree, that probably is what it is, but when we’re—when we’re operating a—a business there, I think it does take a lot more of a careful approach and really understanding that landscape and what would be beneficial to implement. Whether that’s new energy, understanding, you know, how these flows are going to change, what that means for the environment, and how we can better serve that by not getting in the way and letting nature take its—take its course, but really just sort of surrendering what we can, but then also trying to help where we can.
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