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WILDFIRE PREPARATION STRATEGIES FOR RANCHERS by Dan Macon and Tracy Schohr, livestock and natural resources advisors, University of California Cooperative Extension The year 2020 marked another record setting wildlife season, when the August Complex Fire in Northern California became the largest fire in the state since recordkeeping began. This past year, we watched headlines showcase the devastating impact of fires on ranching operations; destroying homes and infrastructure, and killing cattle. We also watched the ranching community come together to help neighbors move cattle, identify emergency feed and start rebuilding operations. Wildfire preparations are complex for commercial livestock operations. Many operations are in rural areas with delayed accessibility of firefighting resources, include older infrastructure built of wood and are within wildland fuels (e.g grass, shrubs, woodlands and forests). Wildfire preparedness at the ranch scale includes three primary themes: home hardening, evacuation planning and defensible space. Through the experiences of fellow cattlemen, we have outlined below key wildfire preparation and planning strategies for commercial livestock producers. You can find additional resources on the list below by contacting your local Cooperative Extension livestock and natural resources advisor or visiting https://ucanr.edu/ sites/fire/Prepare/. Developing and Implementing a Wildfire Plan
for preg-checking, etc.” states Daley. 2. Defensible Space: Create defensible space around home(s), barns and other infrastructure to protect and prevent ignition. Remove flammable vegetation from within 100 feet of houses and other buildings. This should also include other critical infrastructure like propane tanks, wells, equipment sheds, barns, solar water systems and corrals. “It is evident when a landowner has taken steps to protect their property, using a mix of options to reduce fire potential, including grazing, mastication, disked fire breaks, timber harvest, etc.” says Paul Roen, Calpine, rancher and contractor with CALfire and the federal government who spent over 100 days in 2020 fighting fire. “We have these traditional options to help protect our main complexes, but there are also new technologies such as Thermo-Gel® that is a retardant/suppressant that can provide an extra level of fire protection and be sprayed on homes or other assets.” 3. Home Hardening: Take steps to create a more fireresistant home and buildings. One example is covering all vent openings with 1/16-inch to 1/8-inch noncombustible corrosion resistant metal mesh screens. Home hardening is very important, when making repairs, to choose fire resistant options such as dual pane windows and fire resistant roofs.
4. Protecting forage: Many ranchers stock their operations 1. Documents, Records and Memorabilia: Be sure conservatively to ensure a supply of fall forage for you have protected critical legal documents, grazing and livestock. Consider creating fuel breaks to protect animal records and insurance information. This can be accomplished by scanning documents, ...CONTINUED ON PAGE 18 taking pictures and saving on the cloud and/ or providing a copy with a family member or friend. “There are different levels of preparation,” states Dave Daley, Butte County Rancher and CCA Past President who has lost both a home and cattle to fires. “It is important to digitize records or have a copy at a second location. My mom keeps the important things in a suitcase ready to go: family bible from Ireland, early pictures from the 1800s and important papers.” This past year in the Bear Fire, Daley lost cattle, and like many ranchers has spent lots of time navigating the Farm Service Agency (FSA) reporting system that is designed to prevent fraud, but is not conducive to commercial operators who do not keep individual cattle records. “You will always wish you had more records. Some of the important records to think about having available include inventory, written leases, trucking records, veterinary bills A fire break can be created to protect your property from severe fire loss. 16 California Cattleman March 2021
