Non Technical Summary
Wildfires can cause widespread damage and are made worse by hot, dry conditions and high winds, conditions often found in the Southern Plains. From February 26th to 28th, 2024, fires in Western Oklahoma destroyed at least 18 homes, 1,180 cattle, 75,000 bales of hay, and 431 miles of fence. OSU Extension has seen some immediate resource gaps, knowledge gaps, and training needed to better support our staff, ranchers, and communities affected by this disaster. These actions will help us respond now and in the future. We are assuring our OSU Extension Educators have the training, tools, and support they need for this recovery. We are creating new factsheets and videos for ranchers affected by the fires, especially those who speak Spanish or are new to ranching. We will make OSU Extension and Oklahoma communities more prepared for future wildfire disasters. The end goal is to help farmers and ranchers, community members, and local economies bounce back stronger after wildfires by improving how we communicate during a recovery, working better with our partners, reducing stress for those affected by the wildfires, and making sure all affected groups feel supported within their communities.

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
807	6050	3100	100%

Knowledge Area
807 - Disaster Preparedness, Mitigation, Response, and Recovery;

Subject Of Investigation
6050 - Communities, areas, and regions;

Field Of Science
3100 - Management;

Goals / Objectives
The goal of this project is to help farmers and ranchers, community members, and local economies bounce back stronger after wildfires. This will be achieved by developing rapid-response education materials targeting new or historically underserved producers, developing a damage assessment framework, and improving Extension office readiness. We will also build response capacity by traveling to a multi-state large animal rescue and holding training, recruiting and training additional Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) members in currently under-represented areas and better engaging the EDEN network to share outputs from this project to support fire recovery efforts in other extension systems.Objective 1:Develop A Standardized Tool For Collecting Information Needed To Estimate Damages.Objective 2: Assess Educator and Physical Office Readiness Across the StateObjective 3: Rebuild the Western Region DARTObjective 4: Joint Large Animal Handling Training for Texas AgriLife and OSU Extension DART membersObjective 5: County Extension Director (CED) Training for Rapid and EffectiveObjective 6: Rapidly deploy materials for historically underserved audiences in affected counties.Objective 7:Enhance connections with EDEN through using resources, sharing resources, and taking advantage of networking opportunities.

Project Methods
Methods for Objective 1.1In support of the objective todevelop astandardized tool for collecting information needed to estimate damages, we will perform semi-structured interviews to identify damage categories. The damage categories will be compared to the EDEN "Ag Damage Assessment and Economic Loss" approach as a starting point to develop a damage assessment tool and to cross-check for consistency across disaster response nationally. The final damage assessment form will then be piloted with Educators in the Northwestern Oklahoma counties affected by wildfire in 2024 to collect final damages. Timing in the summer of 2024 will be appropriate given recovery should be advanced by that stage. Thepreliminary loss estimates developed in April 2024 will be refined using the final assessment tool and republished as final estimates. The interviews and damage assessments will identify additional loss categories we might not have considered and gaps in current Extension resources online. The finalestimates of loss will be published by September 2024.Methods for Objective 1.2To assess educator and physical office readiness across the State we will develop a survey of Extension county office or Experiment Station personnel readiness and readiness for physical damage mitigation. This will occur in two parts. First, an online survey will be distributed and then followed up by a phone call. Second, the results will be summarized to assign a three-level readiness score to each office or station. Offices and/or stations with the lowest level of readiness scores will be subjected to on-site readiness reviews and customized plans to improve readiness will be developed. The readiness of our system will be summarized for administration to highlight areas of strategic investment that would improve readiness levels across the Extension and Experiment Station system.Methods for Objective 2.1In our effort to build OSU Extension's response capacity, we will work with our Disaster and Emergency Preparedness Advisory Board to identify Educators in the Western District who are well-suited to serve as Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) members until 3 positions are filled for the Western DART. Those individuals will take online Incident Command System (ICS) 100, 200, 700, and 800 trainings. We will organize an in-person ICS-300 training for DART members. In the past, we have partnered with USDA APHIS for that training for ICS-300 training, so it has an agriculture focus.Method for Objective 2.2We will participate in ajoint large animal handling training for Texas AgriLife and OSU Extension DART members. Our OSU team will travel to Texas for this co-organized training. We will utilize this training to develop anin-state version of this training for Educators that can be held in conjunction with other training in Oklahoma. We will conduct evaluations for those who participate in the joint training to track effectiveness and make improvements as we develop an in-state large animal handling training.Method for Objective 2.3Our County Extension Directors (CED) will receivea Disaster Response training program delivered at each of the area CED in-service training meetings in the Fall of 2024. During these trainings, thereadiness assessment results will be shared through a summary document, and a high-level summary of ICS-402 "National Incident Management System Overview for Senior Officials" will be provided. EDEN and OSU Extension materials will be shared with CEDs.Method for Objective 3.1In our efforts to enhance equity and inclusion of rapid response educational materials, we will work alongside Educators in affected counties to assess the need for programs targeting producers who may have been affected by wildfire for the first time.We will work alongside efforts in other Extension programs to hire a Spanish interpreter, and key factsheets on land recovery after a fire and on disaster recovery programs will be translated into Spanish. New factsheets will be developed on the following topics: "How to Get a Farm Service Agency Number", "Getting Started with Farm Service Agency for Disaster Program Participation" and "Tax Implications of Disaster Program Payments."Results from action readiness under Objectives 1.1 and 1.2 will be used to identify other factsheets or videos that need to be developed.Adisaster preparedness student intern will workalongside Donna Patterson, DART Leader, on assessing needs, developing materials, and engaging historically underserved audiences.Method for Objective 4.1We will engage and align with National Extension Disaster Education Network Initiatives by first utilizing the EDEN "Ag Damage Assessment and Economic Loss" approach and adapting it to our stakeholder needs. We will travel to the 2025 annual EDEN conference to share lessons learned from the 2024 fires and materials developed through this proposal.Materials from training unique to Oklahoma will be shared through EDEN.