🔥 Russell Co., Kansas Wildfire: 100+ MPH Winds, Devastation & Survival | Ranchers Share Their Story

On December 15, 2021, a catastrophic wildfire driven by hurricane-force winds ripped through Paradise, Kansas. In this powerful video, local ranchers Kenneth Stielow and Ethan Dickerson recount the terrifying day when fire swept across 13,000 acres, destroying homes, grasslands, livestock, and decades of hard work. Wind gusts clocked between 100–120 mph pushed flames miles ahead, igniting anything in their path. Families had minutes to evacuate. Livestock was lost. Generations-old homesteads were reduced to ash. Hear firsthand accounts of survival, loss, and resilience from the heart of rural Kansas—and how agencies like NRCS and FSA stepped in to support the community's recovery. 🎥 Featuring: Kenneth Stielow (Rancher, Paradise, KS) Ethan Dickerson (Young Rancher, Paradise, KS) Ray Gonzalez (NRCS Supervisor, Russell County) 🔔 Subscribe to Kansas Grazing Lands for more real stories, land management tips, and fire recovery resources. 🔗 WEBSITE: https://www.kglc.org/ #KansasWildfire #RancherStories #ParadiseKS #GrazingLands #WildfireRecovery #NRCS #DisasterRelief #RanchLife #FirePreparedness The Kansas Grazing Lands Coalition (KGLC) was organized shortly after the formation of the National Grazing Lands Coalition Initiative (GLCI) in 1991. Since its inception KGLC has grown and expanded its partnering efforts to improve Kansas grazing lands through collaborative education such as range schools, coffee shop meetings, rancher seminars, public education meetings, and videos covering management topics. KGLC organized as a not-for-profit in 2006 and gained its IRS 501.c.3 status in March 2014. KGLC holds numerous meetings, special events, tours, implements two adult range schools each summer, and interacts with regional grazing groups such as the Tallgrass Legacy Alliance, Comanche Pool Prairie Resource Foundation, Smoky Hills Graziers Association, Kansas Graziers Association, and the Clark-Comanche-Meade Counties Grazing Group to support local efforts to solve priority grassland issues and concerns, primarily through educational efforts often keying on grassland wildlife species. The Coalition helped birth the Kansas Prescribed Fire Council (KS PFC) in 2008, and has supported it with staff assistance and finances. The Coalition recently worked with KS PFC and the Comanche Pool to secure a $250,000 2012 Conservation Partners Grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to place two regional fire coordinators in the Lesser Prairie Chicken Initiative area of western Kansas to help start and support new local prescribed burning associations. KGLC updated its long-term strategy guiding its growth through 2015. It includes key elements of developing and helping to implement a comprehensive statewide grasslands invasive species plan, reducing the impacts of grassland fragmentation, continuing expansion and support for regional grazing groups where interest exists, continuing to support the use of prescribed fire as a grasslands management tool (through the KS PFC), and maintaining and expanding its cutting edge web site as a primary informational resource for ranchers, agency staffs, educators, and others.