30 Relief announced


for drought, fire AgriStability sign-up extended


by JACKIE PEARASE VERNON – A potent mix of flooding, drought and


wildfire in 2018 have prompted the federal and provincial governments to trigger the late participation mechanism of the AgriStability program. Canada’s new agriculture minister Marie-Claude Bibeau made the announcement March 11 in Coldstream as part of her first visit to BC as agriculture minister. “The late participation mechanism is a new feature of


our five-year, cost-shared Canadian Agriculture Partnership with the province and we pushed hard to include this,” Bibeau said at the cow-calf operation of Ira and Noreen French. “Here in British Columbia, it means that 7,500 farmers and ranchers will be eligible to join and benefit from the program.” The late participation element of the AgriStability


program can be triggered when there is a significant income decline in the farm sector and a gap in program participation. Bibeau says conditions in BC in 2018 resulted in


significant production and market losses that created financial pressures for producers from raspberry growers to ranchers. Canadian Cattlemen’s Association president Dave


Haywood-Farmer says the AgriStability program recognizes that producers face a wide variety of challenges across Canada and allowing producers who didn’t participate in the regular program will offer welcome relief to hard-hit BC farmers. “The announcement today will benefit more BC


producers and farmers who were impacted by the fires in 2018 which are, unfortunately, becoming a regular occurrence in BC during the summer months,” he said. The opening up of AgriStability funding for producers


follows $5 million worth of assistance announced in October 2018 through the AgriRecovery disaster framework.


WILDFIRE mitigation plan


“It’s not really the forest that causes the structure loss, it’s the embers from the forest. We can absolutely mitigate the fuel around our homes in the forest,” he explains. “A well- prepared home can easily survive the fuel release and temperature from the forest.” A wildfire preparedness and mitigation plan for producers lays out the basic information anyone needs during an emergency: emergency contacts, insurance information and water sources, but it also includes details specific to a farm: livestock inventory, livestock location during fire season and maps of the agricultural operation. These plans include


checklists for various scenarios during an emergency, from sheltering or relocating livestock to creating a firebreak and deploying sprinklers. Steiner says producers should provide the plan to their local government’s emergency operation centre prior to fire season and obtain a premises identification (PID) number for their farms to ease the chaos during an emergency. “It allows the Ministry of


Agriculture and other response agencies to know that you have livestock, to know exactly where they are and know approximate numbers you have,” he explains. “It puts you on their radar for assistance.”


These steps can also ease


the process of obtaining a re- entry permit during an evacuation. Regional District of North


Okanagan emergency program coordinator Alastair Crick says producers need to put their plans into action quickly once an emergency is declared. “It’s really important at the


alert stage of an event that you guys activate. If we wait until there’s an order to get out, we’re not getting your thousand cows out; we’re not getting your 25 cows out,” Crick notes. Harmony Farm Kennel and


Lamb co-owner Patricia Skinner-Porter says every producer should attend a workshop. Skinner-Porter was somewhat prepared when fire threatened her Monte Lake farm in 2017 but says the workshop provided her with important steps she intends to implement. “When you’re faced with all


COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • APRIL 2019 nfrom page 29


kinds of last-minute decisions, you can’t think of all this stuff then. There’s a lot of fear you’re working under. Rather than prevention, you’re working on fear and the activities rather than responding,” she says. “The plan really gets a hold of the things you can do on your property to prepare.” Smith also outlined basic


FireSmart principles producers should consider when undertaking mitigation measures. He encouraged everyone to take the FireSmart assessment to determine their risk and to get insurance outside of the fire season, recalling how one woman tried to alter her insurance during fire season only to have her policy cancelled because she was considered in a fire zone, although nowhere near a fire. “You need to have your insurance policy lapse some time before April or after November,” notes Smith. The workshop was also


offered in Vanderhoof, Quesnel, Kamloops, Cranbrook, Creston, Grand Forks, Osoyoos, Duncan and Pemberton. A workbook and guide are available online at [www.bcagclimateaction.ca].


Be FireSmart with these tips


Applying FireSmart principles to agricultural operations can go a long way to reducing risks during a wildfire. Here are some FireSmart tips to mitigate wildfire damage:


Get in the zone • Zone 1: A 10-metre fire- resistant zone around your home free from all combustible materials including plants, trellises, wood chips, coniferous trees, firewood, grass and debris.


• Zone 2: The area 10-30 metres from your home needs to have trees spaced to three metres apart and pruned within two metres of the ground; clean up accumulated dry branches, leaves, grass and needles to reduce potential surface fuels.


• Zone 3: Create a firebreak 30-100 metres from your home by creating space between trees and flammable vegetation to reduce the wildfire intensity.


Prepare your home • Have a Class A roof and keep it well maintained, with no debris collection that will act as surface fuels for flying embers. • Keep your gutters clean and use metal, not vinyl.


• Have a 15-cm strip of non- combustible siding around the base of the home and any right angle connections where embers may collect. • Use heavy timber for deck construction and keep clean of debris.


• Use fine metal mesh screens on eaves and vents. • Stay away from vinyl siding


and untreated wood; stucco, metal siding, brick, concrete and fibre cement siding offer superior fire resistance. • Separate your home from fence lines with metal gates and keep the grass low along fences.


• If you cannot FireSmart buildings within 10 metres of your home, consider removal.


Fire-resistant plant characteristics • moist, supple leaves • minimal dead vegetation accumulation • water-like sap with little odour


• little sap or resin material


Highly-flammable plant characteristics • aromatic leaves or needles • accumulation of fine, dry, dead material


• resins or oils • loose, papery or flaky bark


Forage and Cover Crop Seed


Authorized Dealer for:


MARCH 30 MARCH 30 APRIL 6 APRIL 13 APRIL 18


CONTINENTAL CONNECTION, Quesnel DAWSON CREEK ALL BREED BEST BET, Williams Lake VANDERHOOF


WILLIAMS LAKE


SIMMENTAL ASSOCIATION of BC INFO: REANNE SANFORD, SECRETARY 250.249.5332 reanne@krssimmentals.ca


GPS Guidance and Precision Ag Equipment


Ag Consulting Services: Beef Nutrition and Ration Balancing and Nutrient Management Planning


Plants to avoid • cedar • pine


• juniper • tall grass • spruce


Wildfire-resistant trees • poplar • birch • aspen • cottonwood • maple • alder • ash • cherry


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