Five truckloads of hay were being unloaded in Miles City on Monday after a nearly 1,600-mile journey last weekend from Eau Clair, Pennsylvania.
The cross-country haul is the latest addition to more than 30 truckloads that have been donated this month to ranchers in Eastern Montana still reeling from the combined devastation of a historically severe drought and a summer filled with relentless wildfires.
"These ranches have been in these families for years, and it’s their livelihood," said Perry Altmire Jr., a resident of the tiny Western Pennsylvania town who has spearheaded the "PA for Montana" effort to coordinate and deliver hay donations to the region.
"It just seemed to be something that our community got on board with.
While he acknowledges the urgency and severity of the hurricane-driven disasters still playing out in the Southeast, Altmire said he felt that Montana was getting short shrift in terms of national media coverage. Over the Labor Day weekend, he discussed the state’s plight with his son, Chad Carmichael, who is stationed at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls.
"We just wanted to get it out that there’s national media attention for the hurricanes, and nobody’s paying attention to the million acres that burned in Montana," said Carmichael, who runs a group called "Montana Outdoor Addicts" with his wife and friends.
The challenge, he said, was getting enough trucks and drivers together to haul the bales to Montana. He recruited the owner of another local trucking company, Wayne Sell, along with three of his drivers, to drive five trucks across most of the country.