Progress report for WPDP21-005
Project Information
The compounding threats of climate change and pandemics threaten the sustainability of agriculture around the globe. In the Western region, the added risk of high-intensity and unpredictable wildfires threatens agricultural communities at alarming and increasing scales. This project provides timely training to agricultural professionals on wildfire disaster preparedness, response and recovery. Our project will be based on six years of climate risk education, four years of wildfire and disaster risk management and four years of resilience research with impacted producers in California. Though California is the most agriculturally productive state in the United States, it is also the one at greatest risk to the threat of wildfires. California’s farmers are increasingly confronted with wildfires through direct farm losses, smoke and ash health hazards, lost markets and time, evacuations and power outages. Our experience in on-the-ground response and research have shown us the critical need for educational resources for these communities.
To support the economic and social sustainability of rural agricultural communities our project will update the ‘Farming Through the Wildfire Season’ course which guides agricultural professionals in practical, proven strategies for risk reduction, wildfire preparedness, disaster response and recovery. The course includes multimedia resources and a workbook which supports self-assessments and activities designed for farm and regional level analysis. Completion will result in a Wildfire Resilience Plan tailored to producers’ businesses. The workbook will be accompanied by online modules and a Disaster Resilience Clearinghouse. In addition, the project team will conduct workshops training agricultural professionals in high-risk western regions on how to use the curriculum in their communities and on key aspects of wildfire readiness.
Our project will enhance the quality of life for producers facing devastating threats of wildfire by equipping them with the practical tools to increase resilience to fire, in turn supporting the viability of agricultural communities.
The goal of this project is to develop an activity-based, multimedia curriculum which is readily adaptable to diverse regional priorities and is appropriate for teaching farmers and ranchers how to attain wildfire resilience. Wildfire resilience refers to the capacity of agricultural communities to reduce their fire vulnerability and their ability to adapt and transform in response. We conceptualize resilience across multiple scales (farm, region, state) and across multiple phases (disaster risk management, preparedness, response and recovery). Our program elucidates tested strategies that support communities whose livelihoods depend on fire adapted ecosystems.
The overall outcome of this project is to increase the capacity of Cooperative Extension advisors, NRCS field staff, farm advisors, disaster response personnel and other agricultural professionals to apply the knowledge of wildfire resilience with their clientele (farmers, ranchers, farmworkers, agricultural communities and governments). Generally, this will be accomplished through creating highly targeted educational materials and workshops that will:
- Enhance agricultural professionals understanding of the potential impacts of wildfires to agricultural producers and farming communities
- Support agricultural professionals in evaluating their clients’ vulnerability and response capacity to wildfire.
- Increase agricultural professionals' ability to assist their clientele in developing a wildfire resilience plan based on their prior assessment of their wildfire vulnerability.
- Increase agricultural professional’s knowledge around the networks, resources and policies available and needed to address fires. Professionals will review social, nonprofit and government resources available for fire prevention, preparation and recovery.
- Extend the knowledge of disaster management best-practices to agricultural professionals.
- Support agricultural professionals in creating fire response and prevention networks where producers commit to building preparedness in their region.
The first update to the core curriculum will be complete in January 2023. Iterative changes will be made thereafter with a final version complete by Fall 2023. Our program will support agricultural professionals in using the curriculum materials in community-based efforts to effectively support their clientele. We will reach agricultural service providers at trainings this winter (Ecofarm, Small Farm Conference, CARCD) and additional trainings in the late spring and summer of 2023.
This two year project will begin with regular team meetings and curriculum development. The curriculum development will be led by the Co-PIs and will be based on a needs assessment of 65 producers and of 224 extension personnel conducted in 2019. The development of activities in the workbook will be supported by a UC Davis PhD research project carried out between 2019-2022 that identifies the variations of wildfire vulnerability and adaptive capacity that exists amongst farmers and farming communities.
Year One Fall 2021 - Fall 2022 - Curriculum Development
The project team will hold at least two full day intensives to review drafts of the Farming through Wildfire Season curriculum. Then, the curriculum development team will integrate feedback and team members will be assigned specific tasks for individual curriculum segments. Once developed, a blind review of the workbook will be conducted by a select group of 5 professionals and 5 producers. Reviewers will represent a range of geographic regions, production sizes and practices to increase applicability of the materials. The curriculum development team will integrate the results from the review and create a final draft of the workbook to be finalized with the project team.
Once the content of the workbook is complete the project team will identify which learning modules are needed to accompany the workbook. Case Study (farmer) stories and expert contributors for the learning modules will be selected, recorded and edited. The workshop agenda and content will be drafted and circulated to the project team. After circulating all final materials (workbook, learning modules and workshop agenda) to the project team, a virtual meeting will address final questions and concerns.
All curriculum materials will be made freely available online, on the curriculum website, by the end of the first year of the project. Including CAFF’s disaster clearinghouse which will be updated regularly through the project period.
Year Two: Fall 2022 - Fall 2023 - Workshops
Four trainings will be conducted in regions that are at high-risk to wildfires. At least 60 agricultural service providers will be trained on how to use the curriculum as well as on key aspects of wildfire readiness and resilience. These agricultural professionals will then go on to work with the clientele.
Recruitment for these events will begin in the Fall of 2022, however we will announce the launch of our project to attract more partners and participants as soon as the Fall 2021.
Cooperators
- (Educator)
- (Researcher)
- (Educator and Researcher)
Education & Outreach Initiatives
One main objective of this project is to develop an activity-based, multimedia curriculum which is readily adaptable to diverse regional priorities and is appropriate for teaching farmers and ranchers how to attain wildfire resilience.
The project team held numerous meetings to review drafts of the Farming through Wildfire Season curriculum. Then, the curriculum development team integrated feedback and team members were assigned specific tasks for individual curriculum segments. Once developed, a review of the workbook will be conducted by a select group of 4 professionals and 4 producers. Reviewers will represent a range of geographic regions, production sizes and practices to increase applicability of the materials. The curriculum development team integrated the results from the review and created a new version of the workbook that will be completed in January 2023 with iterative changes made until Fall 2023.
Once the content of the workbook is complete the project team will identify which learning modules are needed to accompany the workbook. Case Study (farmer) stories and expert contributors for the learning modules are currently being selected, recorded and edited. The workshop agenda and content will be drafted and circulated to the project team. After circulating all final materials (workbook, learning modules and workshop agenda) to the project team, a virtual meeting will address final questions and concerns
All curriculum materials will be made freely available online, including on the Farmer Campus website as well as cross linked on CAFF’s disaster clearinghouse which will be updated regularly through the project period.
Not applicable yet as the trainings have not started. The first one is later this week at the 2023 EcoFarm Conference.
Enhance agricultural professionals understanding of the potential impacts of wildfires to agricultural producers and farming communities
Train agricultural service providers on the wide range of impacts wildfires can have on agricultural areas.
Four trainings will be conducted in regions that are at high-risk to wildfires. At least 60 agricultural service providers will be trained on how to use the curriculum as well as on key aspects of wildfire readiness and resilience. These agricultural professionals will then go on to work with the clientele. We applied to the EcoFarm Conference, California Small Farms Conference (CASFC), and the California Resource Conservation District’s Conference (CARCD). We were accepted to present workshops in English on the Wildfire Workbook at the CASFC CARCD, and EcoFarm conferences. EcoFarm also accepted us presenting on the Wildfire Workbook during a workshop in their Spanish track. This is not necessarily a deliverable for this grant (because the trainings are supposed to be focused towards agricultural service providers and we’re not sure how many of them will be in the Spanish session), but we are pursuing the opportunity as a way to reach a broader audience. With the three English trainings (CARCD, CASFC, Ecofarm), that leaves us with one additional training that we will complete in the spring/summer of 2023.
We will document the number of people at our trainings and when possible assess any changes in knowledge related to this topic.
Increase agricultural professional’s knowledge around the networks, resources and policies available and needed to address fires. Professionals will review social, nonprofit and government resources available for fire prevention, preparation and recovery.
This topic will be covered in the training and reflected in the curriculum shared with providers.
Four trainings will be conducted in regions that are at high-risk to wildfires. At least 60 agricultural service providers will be trained on how to use the curriculum as well as on key aspects of wildfire readiness and resilience. These agricultural professionals will then go on to work with the clientele. We applied to the EcoFarm Conference, California Small Farms Conference (CASFC), and the California Resource Conservation District’s Conference (CARCD). We were accepted to present workshops in English on the Wildfire Workbook at the CASFC CARCD, and EcoFarm conferences. EcoFarm also accepted us presenting on the Wildfire Workbook during a workshop in their Spanish track. This is not necessarily a deliverable for this grant (because the trainings are supposed to be focused towards agricultural service providers and we’re not sure how many of them will be in the Spanish session), but we are pursuing the opportunity as a way to reach a broader audience. With the three English trainings (CARCD, CASFC, Ecofarm), that leaves us with one additional training that we will complete in the spring/summer of 2023.
We will document the number of people at our trainings and when possible assess any changes in knowledge related to this topic.
Extend the knowledge of disaster management best-practices to agricultural professionals.
We aim to enable agricultural service providers to have an initial base of knowledge to help answer growers initial questions on disaster management and then help redirect farmers to other resources.
Four trainings will be conducted in regions that are at high-risk to wildfires. At least 60 agricultural service providers will be trained on how to use the curriculum as well as on key aspects of wildfire readiness and resilience. These agricultural professionals will then go on to work with the clientele. We applied to the EcoFarm Conference, California Small Farms Conference (CASFC), and the California Resource Conservation District’s Conference (CARCD). We were accepted to present workshops in English on the Wildfire Workbook at the CASFC CARCD, and EcoFarm conferences. EcoFarm also accepted us presenting on the Wildfire Workbook during a workshop in their Spanish track. This is not necessarily a deliverable for this grant (because the trainings are supposed to be focused towards agricultural service providers and we’re not sure how many of them will be in the Spanish session), but we are pursuing the opportunity as a way to reach a broader audience. With the three English trainings (CARCD, CASFC, Ecofarm), that leaves us with one additional training that we will complete in the spring/summer of 2023.
We will document the number of people at our trainings and when possible assess any changes in knowledge related to this topic.
Project Outcomes
CAFF formally started our Wildfire Resilience Program in February of 2022. This project is one of the main projects happening under the CAFF Wildfire Resilience program currently. During 2022, the project team met monthly to ensure project deliverables are on-track. Farmer Campus spent most of their time updating the newest version of the workbook curriculum. CAFF staff also reviewed the workbook and provided feedback and recommendations. Additionally, CAFF staff updated our Wildfire Resilience Library quarterly, which can be found here: https://caff.org/resilience-resources/. Finally, a significant amount of time was spent by project members in 2022 applying for winter conferences, revising conference plans based on input received from the conferences, and planning the trainings planned for early/mid 2023.
Four trainings will be conducted in regions that are at high-risk to wildfires. At least 60 agricultural service providers will be trained on how to use the curriculum as well as on key aspects of wildfire readiness and resilience. These agricultural professionals will then go on to work with the clientele. We applied to the EcoFarm Conference, California Small Farms Conference (CASFC), and the California Resource Conservation District’s Conference (CARCD). We were accepted to present workshops in English on the Wildfire Workbook at the CASFC CARCD, and EcoFarm conferences. EcoFarm also accepted us presenting on the Wildfire Workbook during a workshop in their Spanish track. This is not necessarily a deliverable for this grant (because the trainings are supposed to be focused towards agricultural service providers and we’re not sure how many of them will be in the Spanish session), but we are pursuing the opportunity as a way to reach a broader audience. With the three English trainings (CARCD, CASFC, Ecofarm), that leaves us with one additional training that we will complete in the spring/summer of 2023.
We are about to begin our four workshops, starting at EcoFarm next week. We will have success stories to report out on our final report.
It's too early in the project to make any recommendations at this point.