Agricultural Producer Wildfire Planning: Guide & Workbook Now Available

We all know that wildfires and other emergencies can leave us feeling unprepared and often appear unexpectedly, and for agricultural producers this can cause additional anxieties due to the large scale and varied nature of the operations they need to protect.

The Saddle Hills County Agricultural Services Department has been hard at work creating an Agricultural Producer Wildfire Plan Workbook, with Guide, to help you create your own, individualized wildfire plan for your agricultural operation. 

Creating an Agricultural Producer Wildfire Plan is an essential step in preparing for a major wildfire event. A Wildfire Plan focuses on actions producers can take before, during, and after a wildfire to protect their operations and businesses.

An agriculture-specific Wildfire Plan could help you in many ways. Specifically, a Wildfire Plan:

• Helps producers make decisions now, while there is time to calmly consider options and collect specific information that may be difficult to obtain in a crisis.
• Informs family members, staff, neighbors, and first responders how they can help during a wildfire emergency.
• Helps producers intending to return to the agriculture operation during or after an evacuation order.
• Reduces harm to agricultural operations, assets, crops, and livestock.
• Demonstrates “due diligence” when negotiating with insurance providers.

Saddle Hills County's Agricultural Services Department has put together an Agricultural Producer Wildfire Plan Workbook and accompanying Guide to help our producers feel better prepared in the event of an emergency.

By using this Guide and the Workbook to complete a Wildfire Plan, producers are taking steps to protect themselves and to prepare for wildfire events where they may require assistance. This Guide and Workbook are suitable for use by all producer types, from livestock to mixed agriculture operations, horticulture and field crops. The Workbook also includes considerations for operations that have commercial production systems on-site and receive significant numbers of visitors to their facilities during wildfire season (agriculture operation gate sales, u-pick operations). Some content and sections are commodity-specific and should only be completed if applicable. All sections are included in one comprehensive Workbook for the benefit of producers who engage in more than one type of agricultural production.

The Guide and the Workbook work together to focus on the critical decisions and actions that should be addressed before a wildfire occurs. The Guide refers to specific parts of the Workbook.

The Workbook is available in both fillable PDF and Microsoft Word format, allowing producers to create a Wildfire Plan by filling in their specific information. Producers can then edit and print their own plans and update them regularly. Some customizations may be required to meet individual producer needs and circumstances. For example, producers who manage multiple properties under different ownership or who own multiple parcels under varying management may wish to include a summary of key information collated for all properties. 

You can download all documents below, or contact Agricultural Services at ag@saddlehills.ab.ca or by calling (780) 864-3760 if you have any questions.