Downed branches and loads of mud and silt litter the Little Tongue Ranch near Dayton. A flash flood in the Little Tongue River July 15 left significant amounts of debris on Larry and Vicki Hanft’s ranch.

The Hanfts were called late the night of July 15 and warned of a flood coming their way. Larry Hanft said the flooding was a shorter duration but more violent than a flood in 2019, which he estimated lasted about one week.

The flooding this year lasted two days at most.

“It did everything it needed to do in that time,” Hanft said.

Debris went through basements, barns, the scale house, damaged the well and moved a bridge, among other damages to the ranch.

Throughout a tour of his ranch, Hanft described the flooding and its aftermath with just a few words.

“It’s devastating,” Hanft said.

If clean up goes perfectly, he said, Little Tongue Ranch will be cleaned up by the fall, in time for cattle to come back.

“It’s going to take major work, and that’s what we’re into now,” said Hanft.

Vicki Hanft was mowing the grass Thursday. She said it was too wet to cut the grass, but it wouldn’t dry without being cut.

This week, five or six ranch hands worked to clear debris at the Little Tongue Ranch to return it to working order. They shoveled mud out of the barns, replaced rock formations in the river and repaired the well connection, among a lot of other work.

National Resources Conservation Service District Conservationist Andrew Cassiday said the Elk Fire removed a significant amount of vegetation on the mountain and changed the nature of the soil, making it more resistant to water infiltration. The fire burned more than 98,000 acres in fall 2024.

“So, you see higher and faster runoff, and that’s what we saw (the night of July 15) in one particular watershed along the face of the mountain near Dayton,” Cassiday said.

The Hanfts are one of a few property owners who have received or are pursuing funds to help cover fire mitigation — and now flood clean up — costs from the Sheridan County Conservation District.

Fire mitigation is a new territory for SCCD, according to District Manager Carrie Rogaczewski. The district has a long history of working with landowners to improve water and range quality through cost share programs.

“While fire is certainly a part of the landscape in this country and this part of Wyoming, it was not something that we as a conservation district had ever worked directly on,” Rogaczewski said.

Initially, SCCD’s agreement with the Hanfts was intended to help cover costs to remove potentially hazardous trees. After their ranch was flooded during a storm on July 15, though, SCCD and its board pivoted to include flood cleanup costs in the agreement.

Through various state and federal grants, as well as private donations, SCCD has a total of $160,000 available to property owners for its short-term fire mitigation projects. Clearing debris fits into the conservation district’s overall goal of risk mitigation and protecting infrastructure and agricultural operations, according to Rogaczewski.

Sediment and debris accumulation upstream could induce further erosion and adversely impact water quality downstream, Cassiday explained.

Rogaczewski encouraged interested property owners to reach out to the conservation district. SCCD’s programming is completed voluntarily and the board reviews funding requests on a case-by-case basis during its meetings.