SARAH COOKE Associated Press writer | Posted: Friday, May 28, 2004 12:00 am
CHEYENNE (AP) - Large swaths of northeast Wyoming haven't seen rain in at least a month, while precipitation in Buffalo and other areas is half of what it should be or less.
In an early plea for help, Gov. Dave Freudenthal asked the federal government Thursday to provide some relief, and declare Converse and Johnson counties drought disaster areas to make them eligible for federal assistance.
"While the emergency assistance that attends the disaster declaration requested cannot fully ameliorate the damage that the drought has caused in Wyoming, I am hopeful that it will supply some degree of relief for the people of the state," Freudenthal said.
The request now heads to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman for review.
A disaster declaration allows farmers and ranchers to access low-interest loans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. To receive a disaster designation, counties must have at least a 30 percent loss of production in one or more crops.
At least nine Wyoming counties received federal drought aid last year.
Freudenthal asked Veneman to keep this year's request open to expedite similar queries from other Wyoming counties.
Much of the state remains under extreme drought conditions, with pockets of severe and moderate drought dotting northwest and eastern Wyoming, according to the NOAA's Climate Prediction Center.
Snowpack is just 36 percent of normal statewide. Last year at this time, it was 89 percent of the 30-year average.
Conditions in Johnson County have been about as dry as they can get. Buffalo has received just 2 inches of rain so far this year, with about half of that falling in the typically wet months of March and April, commissioner Gerald Fink said.
"I've heard of several irrigators who have already had their irrigation water shut off," he said. "This is the earliest in the season that most people can remember that ever."
Like Converse County, many ranchers in Johnson County are selling their cattle to market, "because there doesn't seem to be any other pasture close by," Fink said.