Wildfire and Agriculture Research

Farmers, ranchers and agricultural communities play a critical role in managing our risk to wildfires, and they are also one of the most impacted. This action-research project will assess how farmers and ranchers in California are impacted by, responding to, and recovering from wildfires. We hope to use our findings to provide research-based solutions and educational materials for our agricultural community as well as targeted and timely policy recommendations.

The ultimate goal of this action-research is to increase the quality of life for agricultural communities facing devastating threats of wildfire by equipping them with the practical tools to increase resilience to fire, sharing proposed adaptation strategies, increasing access and relevance of existing programs and resources and in turn supporting the viability of agricultural communities in fire prone regions.

Our Goals

We use a variety of research tools including field interviews, participant observation, a statewide survey and document analysis to bring the voices of a diversity of agricultural operators into the public conversation about how to respond to wildfires.

Goal 1

The first goal of this project is to address the research and extension gaps at the intersection of wildfires and agriculture. We do this through a multi-sited comparative analysis of the impacts and response strategies of producers confronting wildfires, and will extend the findings through our training programs. We expect to uncover and elucidate precautions that farmers can take to reduce their wildfire risk. We also expect to find critical gaps that agricultural professionals, disaster response personnel, institutions, and governments can fill.

Goal 2

Our second goal is to equip farmers and farming communities with practical tools to increase their resilience to wildfire and to demonstrate the ways in which agricultural producers, as fuel load managers, support our regional ability to coexist with wildfire. We do this by continuing to develop our Research Outputs (see right sidebar) and extend our findings in training and resource sharing in high fire-risk regions.

Goal 3

Finally, we will work towards better resources and policies. We will be writing policy briefs, white papers and representing the voice and experience of the farmers and ranchers participating in our research within policy spaces.

Our Partners

Our research is based on contributions from dozens of topical experts and representatives of agricultural organizations, 15+ farmers and ranchers serving as advisors and reviewers of our research materials and agricultural communities participating in our programs.

Investigators

Natalia Pinzon Jimenez, (PI) PhD Candidate in Geography at UC Davis. Co-Founder, Farmer Campus
Tracy Schohr, Livestock and Natural Resource Advisor, University of California Cooperative Extension
Dr. Ryan E. Galt, Lead Advisor. Endowed Chair in Sustainable Food Systems and Director, UC Davis Agricultural Sustainability Institute
Dr. Leslie Roche, Professor of Cooperative Extension in Rangeland Management, UC Davis

Contact Us

wildfires-ag@ucdavis.edu

Research Outputs

Rancher Policy Brief

Pinzon, N., Roche, L., & Schohr, T. (2024). Policy Brief- Ranchers: How the 2024 Farm Bill Can Support Wildfire Preparedness and Recovery. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.14934.46401

Research Report

Pinzón, Natalia & Schohr, Tracy & Galt, Ryan & Roche, Leslie & Shobe, Brian & Schat-Kenig, Amber. (2024). Farming & Ranching Through Wildfire Season- A Research Report on the Impacts and Responses of California's Producers. 10.13140/RG.2.2.23584.60161.

Farmer Policy Brief

Pinzon, N., Schohr, T., Schatt, A., & Galt, R. (2024). Policy Brief- Farmers: How the 2024 Farm Bill Can Support Wildfire Preparedness and Recovery. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.12255.68007

Workshops and Case Studies

A collection of various workshops related to wildfire recovery and farming/ ranching through wildfire. As well as cases studies collected.

Manuscript

Pinzón, N., Galt, R., Roche, L., Schohr, T., Koundinya, V., Brimm, K., Shobe, B., & Powell, J. (2024). Farming and Ranching through Wildfire: Producers’ Critical Role in Fire Risk Management and Emergency Response. SocArXiv. https://osf.io/aufy3

Interact with our data

Dynamically interact with the survey data here. Here you can find some of our key data points and selectively interact with them.

“This material is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under award Numbers 2018-70027-28587, RMA21CPT0011602, Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program G226-22-W8617 and AFRI EWD Predoctoral Award #2022-67011-36637. USDA is an equal opportunity employer and service provider. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do NOT reflect the view of the USDA. In addition, any reference to specific brands or types of products or services does not constitute or imply an endorsement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for those products or services.”