Austin, Becca and Maia were down at the river and it was raining. Maia noticed that there were TREES rushing down the river. Not branches, TREES. That’s when we knew we were in trouble. The farm is in a 100year flood plane, on the Coast Fork of the Willamette River. In Spring of 2019 there was a wicked combination of too much water in the reservoir, and many inches of rain overnight. The river changed course, and the course was right through the farm. Almost the entire property flooded. During this time there was lots to do as you can imagine. Austin and Andy were busy evacuating the bee hives from washing away when the bison came up to the fence and demanded help. We thought that the pasture we had moved them to was going to be high enough but when Austin turned aroundhe saw the adult animals standing, and the babies swimming, unable to touch their hooves to the ground. The water was moving too fast by the gate and the bison would not go through.

Austin grabbed the wire cutters and went out to the herd on the kayak. The herd followed him to the edge of the pasture where he proceeded to cut the wire fence, all six strands. The herd waited until all six strands were cut before they swam though. This was repeated THREE TIMES with THREE different wire fences, until the herd reached safety on high ground. Had the herd not waited for his cue and trusted him we could have easily had animals tangled up in wire fence in the middle of the flooding water. Becca did not video, as she normally does, because this was that freak out moment. When you turn around and see your spouse on a kayak being chased by a herd of bison in the middle of a flood, you cry and then you go see if he needs help.

It was a mess cleaning up after. The flood took out most of our fences. We had heavy snow and ice the month before, so all the branches that broke and were on the ground were now washed up in our fencing. Fortunately the herd was safe and patient, we now know precisely where we want to put the herd next time this happens and we have built the infrastructure to support it. Whew.