For 21 years, Mike Wintz and his wife, Kayla, have worked to maintain their nearly 11,000-acre ranch near Bingham, Nebraska. The couple took over the cow-calf operations from Kayla’s parents, who had been in the business for over 25 years. In less than six hours, nearly all of that land burned.
Throughout March, following the second warmest and fourth driest winter for the state on record, western and central Nebraska have been inundated with large wildfires. The Morrill, Cottonwood, Anderson Bridge, and Road 203 wildfires all erupted in central and western Nebraska within a few days of each other. As of March 30, the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency estimated that wildfires have burned about 945,381 acres so far this year. Just over three months in, 2026 has already set a record for most documented acres burned by wildfire in the state, breaking the 2012 record, according to the Nebraska State Climate Office.
About 92 percent of Nebraska’s fire departments are volunteer-based, some of whom include ranchers like Wintz. Mike was nearly 4 miles away from his ran... Read more
