[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 41 (Thursday, March 9, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1718-S1719]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Kansas Wildfires

  Mr. President, there is a lot to be proud about in being a Kansan. We 
have lots of challenges in our State, and we are undergoing serious 
ones at the moment. For those who have noticed on the news, although it 
is not particularly a story here in the Nation's Capital, Kansas is 
ablaze. Fires are devastating acres and acres. In fact, nearly 700,000 
acres of grasslands in our State have been burned. Fires have started. 
We have had winds for the last 3 days of 50 to 60 miles an hour, and 
dozens of communities and counties have been evacuated. Lots of places 
have been hard hit. My home county of Rooks experienced those fires. 
Hutchinson, a community of 50,000 people, had to evacuate 10,000 people 
in what we would consider in our State a pretty big place. So they have 
been rampant and they have been real, and there have been significant 
consequences to many lives in our State.
  As people know, Kansas is an agriculture place. We raise lots of 
crops, but we are certainly a livestock State, and our ranchers are 
experiencing the significant challenges that come from loss of pasture, 
the death of their cattle, and the burning of their fences.
  On my way over here, I was reading a couple of articles that appeared 
in the Kansas press that I wanted to bring to my colleagues' attention. 
There is nothing here that necessarily asks for any kind of government 
help, but it does highlight the kind of people I represent.
  There is a farm in Clark County. The county seat is Ashland. It is on 
the border with Oklahoma. Eighty-five percent of the county's 
grassland, 85 percent of the acres in that county have been burned. 
This means the death of hundreds, if not thousands, of cattle in that 
county. That is the economic driver of the communities there. Ashland, 
the county seat, has a population of

[[Page S1719]]

about 900 or 1,000--the biggest town in the county--and its future 
rests in large part upon what happens in agriculture.
  There are lots of great ranch families in our State. One of those is 
the Gardiners. The Gardiner Ranch is in Clark County. Their story is 
told a bit in today's edition of the Wichita Eagle. They are known as 
some of the best ranchers in the country. For more than 50 years, they 
have provided the best Angus cattle. They have customers across the 
country. It is a family ranch. This is multigenerational, and three 
brothers now ranch together. It is not an unusual way that we do 
business in Kansas.
  In addition to the economic circumstances that agriculture presents 
in our State, it is one of the reasons I appreciate the opportunity to 
advocate on behalf of farmers and ranchers. It is one of the last few 
places in which sons and daughters work side by side with moms and 
dads, and grandparents are involved in the operation. Grandkids grow up 
knowing their grandparents. There is a way of life here that is 
important to our country. Our values, our integrity, and our character 
are often transmitted from one generation to the next in this 
circumstance because we are still able to keep the family together, 
working generation to generation. The Gardiners are an example of that, 
but there are hundreds of Kansans who exemplify this.
  I would like to tell the story of Mr. Gardiner, as reported by the 
Wichita Eagle. Mr. Gardiner said that he was slowly driving by some of 
his estimated 500 cattle that had died in this massive wildfire, and he 
complained on their behalf that they never had a chance. The fire was 
so fast. His ranch, as I said, is one of the most respected. The 
quality of the family's Angus cattle has been a source of pride and 
national attention for more than 50 years.
  Like others, the Gardiners have endured plenty of bumps--and this is 
him telling their story--over five generations of ranching. The drought 
and dust of the 1930s was tough, he said, and there were even drier 
times in the 1950s. About 5 years ago, there was another drought in our 
State that was so devastating. He said his family lost 2,000 acres when 
they couldn't make a payment to the bank. Blizzards in 1992 killed a 
lot of cattle.
  My point is that nothing is easy about this life, but there is 
something so special about it. The point I want to make is that people 
are responding to help, and I thank Kansans and others from across the 
country who are responding to the disasters that are occurring across 
our State throughout this week and into the future. This isn't expected 
to go away anytime soon.
  Mr. Gardiner said that more hay is on the way, and the process of 
rebuilding fences will begin, hopefully, within a few weeks. He said he 
was sent word that Mennonite relief teams were coming from two Eastern 
States to work on his fences and to do so without pay. Truckloads of 
hay are already en route and rolling in. This story indicates that many 
of those truckloads of hay are coming from ranchers who in the past 
have bought livestock from the Gardiners.
  Mr. Gardiner's veterinarian, Randall Spare, said that the Gardiners 
have long been known for taking exceptional care of their customers. 
The veterinarian says, ``Now it's their turn'' for the customers to 
repay them. ``The Gardiners are the cream of the crop, like their 
cattle. I'm not surprised so many people [from so many places] are 
wanting to help them.''
  The reporter says that while he was talking to Mr. Gardiner for this 
interview, Mr. Gardiner answered his cell phone as his pickup slowly 
rolled across a landscape that now looked so barren. The reporter said 
that many of the calls were from clients who just called to send their 
best or to be brought up to date and to ask the Gardiners how they 
could help and how the Gardiners were holding up.
  Mr. Gardiner said:

       It's really something [special], when you hear a pause on 
     the other end of the line and you know it's because [the 
     person who called is] crying because they care that much. It 
     gets like that with ranching. It's like we're all family.

  That is a great thing about our State. It is like that with Kansas. 
We are all a family. But the fact is that his family is still alive. He 
tells the story of not knowing whether his brother and his wife were 
alive. The fire swept around them, but they found a place that avoided 
the fire, a wheat field where the wheat was still green and so short 
that the fire didn't intrude. But he stopped his truck to think a bit 
and, the story indicates, to sob a bit.
  He watched as his brother Mark and his wife Eva disappeared behind a 
wall of fire as they tried to save their horses and dogs at their home. 
Ultimately, the house was destroyed. Mr. Gardiner, the one the reporter 
was talking to, said:

       I had no choice but to turn around and drive away, with the 
     fire all around me. For a half-hour I didn't know if my 
     brother and his wife were dead or alive. I really didn't.

  He said that then his brother and his wife and some firefighters 
gathered in the middle of that wheat field. It was so short and so 
green, it wouldn't burn. He said:

       It was so smoky I didn't even know exactly where we were 
     at. But then a firefighter came driving by and told us 
     everybody made it out. That's when I knew Mark and his wife 
     were alive. That's when I knew everything would eventually be 
     all right. I am telling you, that's when you learn what's 
     really important.

  So today I come to the Senate floor to express my gratitude for the 
opportunity to represent Kansans like the Gardiners, farmers and 
ranchers across our State but city folks, as well, who know the 
importance of family, who know that living or dying is an important 
aspect of life but that how they live is more important, and to thank 
those people--not just from Kansas but from across the country--who 
have rallied to the cause to make sure there is a future for these 
families and for the farming and ranching operations.
  It is a great country in which we care so much for each other, and 
that is exemplified in this time of disaster that is occurring across 
my State. I am grateful to see these examples, and I would encourage my 
colleagues that we behave the way Kansas farmers and ranchers do--live 
life for the things that are really meaningful and make sure we take 
care of each other.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. MORAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.