Cowichan – Planning & Preparedness for Wildfire Events: Field Day & Knowledge Transfer [cw11]
| Region | Cowichan |
| Status | completed in 2018 |
| Project Lead | Islands Agriculture Show Society |
| Funding Partners | Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, BC Ministry of Agriculture |
A Regional Livestock Relocation and Management project for the Cowichan Valley Regional District was completed in winter 2017. The project developed three tools for the CVRD and producers located in the region, including a farm-level emergency plan Template to be completed by agricultural producers, an accompanying Guide to the Template, and an Emergency Operations Centre-based agricultural emergency plan for use by the CVRD emergency office.
Since that time, the CAI has completed a wildfire project in the Okanagan that builds on both the farm-level emergency planning tool developed for the Cowichan and previously developed wildfire planning and mitigation resources for the Cariboo region. In addition, many lessons on communications and coordination within the agriculture sector were learned by emergency management staff and by producers during the wildfire season in the Cariboo and Okanagan-Thompson regions over summer 2017.
This project transferred key lessons learned and tools evolved from the preceeding projects and events to the Cowichan (and broader Vancouver Island) agriculture sector through a field day and panel session at the 2018 Islands Agriculture Show in Duncan, BC. The project raised awareness and uptake of the Farm-Level Emergency Plan Template; shared information and lessons learned from the Cariboo and Okanagan-Thompson wildfire response experience; facilitated dialogue among Cowichan and other Vancouver Island agencies engaged in wildfire response and with producers; identified and documented collaborative next steps in wildfire/ extreme event preparedness for the Cowichan region; and developed a knowledge transfer approach that could be applied in other areas of the province.