Honour Ranch continues to build towards the future despite pandemic, wildfires

ASHCROFT, B.C. — A little over two years ago, Allan De Genova welcomed veterans, first responders, politicians, and community members to Honour Ranch.

“Honour Ranch, like Honour House, is going to be their place where they can get help for them their families – whichever it’s going to take to see that their mental well-being will be okay,” De Genova said at the time.

Located between Ashcroft and Logan Lake, the property is meant to be a sanctuary for those battling PTSD. However, the pandemic put those plans on hold.

“There’s always a shining light,” De Genova says. “In this case, over the last 19 months roughly, we weren’t able to help – to give [veterans and first responders] the help that they needed. What we were able to do here at the ranch was prepare to operate all year round.”

When De Genova first took on the property, there were cabins and a lodge built on the 120-acre parcel. However, much of the infrastructure – like water – needed to be improved.

“What that meant was to bury our [water] lines six feet down, to all the cabins and all the way up to the top of the mountain, where our water came,” De Genova explains. “Because of the coldness here of minus 20, we can make sure all our waterlines are buried well enough that we have the means of running and not having any freezing.”

It’s been long days, full of hard work to get to that point. However, ensuring a good supply of water is crucial when you’re supplying 10 cabins and plan to build 10 more in the future. Throw a crazy wildfire season into the mix, and the need for reliable water is amplified.

“We put in 3,000 feet of new water lines, we put in a new water plant purification system, we’re in the process now of building a new 26,000-gallon water reservoir tank for fire and other purposes down the road,” volunteer Dave Hodgson explains.

Hodgson has lived near the Honour Ranch property since the ‘60s. He says there have been over a dozen major fire events nearby over that time, but nothing quite as scary as the Tremont Creek Wildfire that burned through this summer.

“One of the hardest things for me to do was walk away from a fight,” Hodgson recounts. “My family stayed back with their friends – they fought the fire and saved our homes. If they hadn’t have stayed in and done that, we wouldn’t have homes at the YD Ranch.”

De Genova knows the ranch was fortunate to escape the fire mostly unscathed. However, he’s been meeting with the frontline wildfire fighters to learn more about the stress and trauma they experience.

“Many of the frontline wildfire firefighters pushed themselves long hours, to the extreme,” De Genova says. “Making them aware, when I had the chance to meet with them, that Honour Ranch is here to help them was already… I could see, an area where the barriers could be put away, you could feel them get comfortable talking about it, and opening up and saying maybe this is something I really need.”

With the fire now extinguished and the pandemic restrictions easing, both De Genova and Hodgson are eager to welcome guests at the ranch, so they can share the little piece of paradise they continue to build.