Many California producers are unaware how federal programs could benefit them as wildfires continue to ravage agricultural land, according to a new policy brief from the University of California Cooperative Extension.
The brief includes 2023 survey results from 116 ranchers across 49 counties, inquiring how they were affected by wildfires between 2017 to 2022 and made policy recommendations based on the 2018 farm bill.
“We wanted to ask folks themselves, the producers, the folks on the ground, to get their local perspectives on what the impacts were and the things that they were doing — to not just respond to — but to prepare for for wildfire,” said Leslie Roche, UC Davis professor of cooperative extension in rangeland management.
Among the study’s key findings: 80% of those surveyed encountered business disruptions due to wildfire, 66% reported significant impacts on their operating income and financial stability, and 57% had production or pasture quality losses.
Despite this, 58% of those surveyed did not use USDA disaster assistance. Of these, 44% said they were unaware programs were available.
Roche said a majority of those who were unaware of USDA programs fell under the small and underserved producer category. Some 62% of first-generation farmers said they didn’t qualify, though that was self-reported.
Partially due to that perception, the researchers realized they should narrow down their recommendations for the next farm bill. They identified ways to direct resources to support community collaboration as a major area of opportunity, as 53% of respondents expressed concern about fuel loads on neighboring properties.
“Wildfires are this classic collective action problem,” Roche said. “So how can these folks work together so that, you know, you're not just one property owner working alone to, you know, increase, you know, resilience of your ranch to, or your farm to, a wildfire.”
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They specifically mention incorporating grazing to the Environmental Quality Incentive Program and making permanent investments in the Emergency Conservation Program and the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm- Raised Fish Program.
They also recommended creating additional staff positions for regional technical support, which Tracy Schohr, UCCE livestock and natural resources advisor, said could include research institutions, the Natural Resources Conservation Service or the USDA Farm Service Agency.
Schohr also noted that the lingering mental health effects of disasters was a repeated consequence for many respondents, an area the previous farm bill hasn’t explored.
“I'll be honest: I wasn't trained to work with ranchers who have dealt with catastrophic losses,” Schohr said. “Our NRCS staff haven't been extensively trained in that or FSA, and so I think it was an area that's being talked about a lot from other disaster bubbles, pillars, however you want to describe them.”
A Congressional Research Service comparison of the House Agriculture Committee's farm bill to current law says the legislation would direct the Forest Service to develop a strategy for livestock grazing and rangeland improvements as a wildfire risk reduction strategy. The legislation also includes a new provision for a public-private wildfire tech pilot program led by the USDA and Department of the Interior.
The legislation also expands eligibility for the Emergency Conservation Program to include wildfires “not caused naturally.” There are no additional provisions for mental health effects of wildfires.
While an official Senate draft farm bill was never released, Senate Ag Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., outlined a summary that includes the same eligibility under ECP. Her proposal also would direct the Interior Department to create one or more fire mitigation training center and encourage the acceptance of proposed wildfire mitigation projects under the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP).
Firefighters find partnership in prevention
At the 2024 California Climate & Agriculture Summit hosted by the California Climate and Agricultural Network, or CalCAN, Schohr led a panel on the alternative treatments ranchers and producers are undertaking to protect their land and animals from fire and how agencies are coordinating to make those efforts easier.
The grassroots effort is focused on continued policy advocacy, which California Cattlemen's Association Vice President of Government Affairs Kirk Wilbur has focused on for the last five years.
They became particularly invested in wildfire resilience after 4% of the state burned in wildfires in 2020. Wilbur said they’ve primarily pushed for support with prescribed grazing and prescribed fires.
“Specifically, about 32 million acres of the state of California are grazed at least some part of the year by cattle,” he said. “About 17 million acres of that is land and private ownership that's either owned outright by cattle producers or is leased by a landowner for cattle grazing.”
Wilbur said that it can still be difficult to “drive home to legislators” the benefits of cattle grazing for climate resilience, primarily due to the methane emissions argument fronted by the California Air Resources Board.
Kirk Wilbur, California Cattlemen's Association VP of Government AffairsHe referenced a paper from UCCE that looks into the total equation of prescribed grazing, taking into account both the emitted methane from cattle and the avoided emissions if that land were to burn. They found reductions in CO2 associated with grazing in grasslands.
“I've been able to take that and run with it … you may be surprised to learn the extent to which some of that research has really taken hold,” Wilbur said, noting that the California Air Resources Board’s 2022 scoping plan promotes livestock grazing for carbon sequestration to avoid wildfire emissions.
Zach Main, a farmer and captain of the Madison Fire Protection District, said he’s happy to see the link forming between fire fighting and fuel reduction. He said prescribed burn associations “are becoming huge,” with recent legislation introducing insurance funds in case a prescribed fire gets out of control.
“The bottom line is, the fire service — myself — we historically were hired as fire suppression personnel. That's what we know how to do. That's what we're trained to do,” Main said. “We're not pros at fire, you know, fuels reduction, fire mitigation, that kind of stuff. … It’s obvious we're going that direction, but until we get to be really, really competent in that, it's really important for us to cooperate with neighbors in communities to get these projects completed.”
Wilbur added that he sees opportunity for prescribed grazing support within the 30x30 plan, which recognizes complementary conservation efforts for working landscapes.
“There's been a lot of good research in recent years and it's really starting to take hold in Sacramento, with legislators and regulators who are recognizing that, yes, we actually should use these available tools on the landscape to make our state more wildfires,” Wilbur said.
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