MAY 2018 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC
29 Ranchers schooled in disaster preparation
Workshops aim to avoid a
repeat of 2017’s mistakes
by TOM WALKER OKANAGAN FALLS – The
BC Cattlemen’s emergency management workshops were a lot like learning to play in the sandbox. They helped producers plan before they went in, and suggested how they might get along once they were in there, bearing in mind the sandbox could be on fire, or flooded. Reg Steward, cattle-driving
cowboy, former Mountie and ranching safety consultant with AgSafeBC, led 15 workshops around the province over the past couple of months on how to prepare an emergency plan and compile important information to post for first responders, and described the success of the Cariboo Regional District’s wildfire permitting system. But his overall message was – just like the sandbox rules – be flexible, co-operate, get along, and share. Steward knows what he is
talking about.
He was in the sandbox that made up the Cariboo Regional District’s Emergency Command Centre in Williams Lake for 63 days straight last summer. Steward says everybody under an evacuation order wants the same thing: protection for their families, houses, properties and livestock.
But a lot can break down in
the “combat zone” of a wildfire, says Steward. “We made progress with the situation I walked into in Williams Lake,” he says. “We
Bree Patterson, beef production specialist with the BC Cattlemen’s Association, Reg Steward of AgSafeBC and Carley Henniger, BCCA programs manager, hold emergency response information tubes they encourage ranchers to hang on a gate post. TOM WALKER PHOTO
don’t want to see that happen again.”
Steward says the
workshops were as much about listening to producers’ concerns as they were about sharing strategies. “We want to establish
protocols that BC Cattlemen’s can take back to the province and say, ‘These are the things we want to see changed,’” says Steward. “We don’t want to reinvent the wheel. Where are the lessons we learned from 2003 and 2008?” Carley Henniger, program manager at BCCA, shared The Wildfire Preparedness and Mitigation Plan, a farmer- friendly planning tool developed by the BC Agriculture & Food Climate Action Initiative. “This is a good starting
point, but make it your own,” says Henniger. The template for the plan is
available at [
https://bit.ly/2EVT2EM]. Participants built tubes for holding emergency response information, which Henniger recommended hanging at the farmgate. Basic information such as a map of the farm with locations of buildings and machinery, as well as building contents, could remain in the tube permanently, while personal contact information and location of livestock could be tucked into the tube on evacuation. “That map is invaluable for
the guys in red shirts,” says Steward. “If you leave a list of
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