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COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • MARCH 2020
New toolkit aids with farm flood preparation Documentation can also assist with insurance claims
by JACKIE PEARASE VERNON – With snowpacks
averaging more than 100% of normal in almost every region of BC, a new toolkit for farmers will be a welcome addition to flood preparations. In mid-February, agrologist Ione Smith of Upland Agricultural Consulting Ltd. visited the agricultural advisory committees in the regional districts of North Okanagan, Okanagan- Similkameen and Fraser Valley. Smith, also vice-president
of the Agricultural Land Commission, sought feedback on the Farm Flood Readiness Toolkit prepared by the BC Agriculture and Food Climate Action Initiative at the recommendation of the Fraser Valley Regional Climate Adaptation Initiative. The local agricultural advisory committees provided input before it went for final edits. “There’s a need to have some easily accessible information for producers to explain some of the science
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behind what’s happening in terms of flood risks and hazards but also to have something concrete that could be used to help plan and prepare for flooding,” Smith explains. “The intent is so that producers are more prepared for flooding before flooding happens to reduce the overall damage to farms.” The toolkit includes nine
factsheets and eight worksheets that function in tandem as part of a producer’s planning process. “If you work through all of the documents, you basically come up with a plan,” Smith notes. “One step may involve several documents within the plan.”
There are five basic steps: gathering key information, assessing the flood risk and flood proofing options, planning for evacuation, livestock evacuation/ relocation options, and insurance, risk management and disaster recovery. The kit includes a milk
share agreement, sample host farm agreement and a factsheet for dairy operations. “We wanted to have one
that’s specific to dairy because we thought there were some special considerations around dairy farms during a flood,” Smith adds. Smith says the information in the finished plan is much the same as that used for a fire preparedness plan and can be helpful when making an
insurance claim. “One of the things that we
uncovered when we were looking into the insurance piece is that often this is the exact type of information insurers need anyway,” she notes. “In doing it ahead of time, you are basically providing them with half of the homework that you need to do in order to qualify for the insurance.” North Okanagan advisory committee members who reviewed the toolkit on February 13 found it to be a timely document that is easy to understand and complete. “We really don’t think of
what’s going to happen if there’s going to be an emergency. So I think this is
very proactive,” says Vernon committee member Dalvir Nahal. “Whatever area, whether residential or farming, you really need to think, ‘If this happens, what am I going to do?’ And come up with a plan and have that plan in place.” With the Okanagan
snowpack at 129% as of February 1, according to the BC River Forecast Centre, there was some frustration that the plan does not go far enough to provide information and solutions to prevent flooding in the first place. “Don’t they have anything
where they can prevent a flood and work on that? No matter what we are doing, it just keeps happening year
FILE PHOTO
after year after year,” said Spallumcheen committee member Gerry Popov. Smith said information
involving waterways is the jurisdiction of the BC Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, and a “can of worms” she prefers to leave to others.
Smith is also getting
feedback from 20 technical reviewers including the BC Ministry of Agriculture, Emergency Management BC and industry groups. “The end result is to have it online through the BC Climate Action Initiative and to also distribute it through industry groups so that producers would have access to it,” she says.
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