California officials are tossing bales of hay off helicopters to save cattle that are snowed in and starving

• About 30 ranchers in California's Humboldt County have officials for help feeding their cattle.
• CAL FIRE and Coast Guard helicopter have been delivering hay to cows stuck in the snow.
• Ranchers said officials used to do something similar over 30 years ago when snow was more common.

Officials in California are stepping up to help out ranchers at risk of losing their cattle to starvation after weeks of unusually heavy snowfall in the state.

The snow and downed trees have blocked off some of the private roads ranchers use to access their cows, and there have been several reports of cattle dying off, according to a statement from the Humboldt County Sheriff's office.

"We won't know until the snow melts how many cattle have died due to these conditions. But I know this for certain, if we don't act, there's going to be way more that do die and it will be a catastrophe for our county," Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal said.

Local ranchers in the county, located on the coast in the northeast part of the state, contacted officials with an idea that they said dated back more than 30 years.

"In the 1980s when the snow was so prevalent and ranchers were unable to get to the ranches, they called upon CAL FIRE and the U.S. Coast Guard Sector Humboldt Bay (USCG) to help deliver hay to those communities," Honsal said.

The Humboldt County Sheriff's office emergency request for the governor's office to utilize helicopters from the US Coast Guard and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) was approved on Sunday, kicking off "Operation Hay Drop."

The USCG and CAL FIRE loaded up helicopters with bales of hay the very same day, headed out to remote mountain areas where hungry cattle awaited, and pushed them out of the chopper. Video shared by the sheriff's office showed the drops over the snowy terrain.

Officials said about 30 ranchers have reached out for help. They provide information about how many cattle they have that need feeding and where the cows are most likely located, which the helicopter crews use to deliver the hay.

The hay is coming from private sources and will be paid for by the ranchers whose cattle are receiving it, officials said. 

"This is an atypical type of operation but it shows the resilience and effectiveness of cooperating with various agencies so in total we can better serve the communities that are affected," Kurt McCray, chief of the CAL FIRE Humboldt-Del Norte Unit, said in a statement. "We are glad to help."

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