Livestock lifeline — County developing livestock emergency response team

Weston County officials are developing a livestock emergency response team designed to connect livestock owners with trailers, equipment, facilities and other assistance during wildfires and other disasters.

Emergency Management Coordinator Gilbert Nelson introduced the initiative during the Sept. 1 meeting of the Board of Weston County Commissioners. The county’s emergency management office is partnering with University of Wyoming Extension in Weston County to organize the team.

“When we have county fires, we’re always worried about evacuations, but how are we going to move critters? How are we going to move people’s cattle?” Nelson said.

The Weston County Livestock Emergency Response Team would identify livestock producers, veterinarians, haulers, equipment owners, facilities, emergency responders and volunteers willing to provide resources when an emergency occurs.

Nelson said the idea has been on his mind for several years, but he needed someone who could help organize it. He said the county’s 4-H educator, Erin Persche, has begun leading that effort.

“She is tuned in with the county and the people that have livestock,” Nelson said in a Sept. 3 email. “Once I reached out to her, she took the ball and started rolling with it.”

Nelson said he would likely be occupied with evacuations, fire response, notifications and other responsibilities during an emergency. A separate team focused on livestock could coordinate the people and equipment needed to move animals.

“If we’ve got a fire on one side of the county, we can utilize people on the other side of the county who’ve got the equipment, the trailers, the trucks, who can go and assist these people in trying to move their livestock,” Nelson told commissioners.

Organizers have created a Google form allowing people to identify resources they could make available, including trucks, livestock trailers, skid steers, hay, veterinary services or locations where evacuated animals could be housed.

The team could assist during wildfires, severe weather, livestock transportation accidents, disease outbreaks and other emergencies affecting livestock or agricultural operations.

The initiative is not intended to replace existing emergency response agencies, Persche said in a Sept. 3 email. Instead, it would create a resource network that Weston County Emergency Management could call upon when specialized agricultural knowledge, equipment or facilities are needed.

Persche said the Extension network will allow Weston County to learn from communities that have recently dealt with major wildfires. She has already contacted an Extension educator in Johnson County to discuss what officials there learned from large fires in recent years and what they would have done differently to prepare.

Because Weston County does not currently have an agriculture and natural resources educator based locally, organizers also hope to bring Extension educators from elsewhere in Wyoming to the county for emergency preparedness workshops.

Those workshops are tentatively planned for January, after the height of fire season but before calving season.

The sessions could bring producers, emergency responders and other community partners together to discuss lessons learned from past disasters, resources that should be identified in advance and ways to coordinate during an evacuation.

Persche said the program may be especially important for small livestock owners who do not have the equipment needed to move all of their animals.

“A lot of times, it’s not our big ag producers that maybe aren’t prepared,” she said. “It’s our little hobby farms, and we have, you know, 10 head of sheep and five goats and a horse and maybe not a trailer to haul them all out if we needed to evacuate.”

Commissioners expressed support for the proposal and recalled livestock losses during the Oil Creek fire.

The initiative remains in its early stages. Organizers are initially asking interested individuals, businesses and organizations to join an interest list. Signing up does not obligate anyone to respond during an emergency, but participants will receive information about meetings, training and the continued development of the team.

People with livestock experience, transportation equipment, machinery, available facilities, veterinary expertise or an interest in emergency preparedness are encouraged to participate.

For more information or to join the interest list, contact the Weston County Extension Office at 307-746-3531 or Weston County Emergency Management at 307-746-4315.

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