Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Backyard (BY) chicken, horse and small ruminant (i.e. backyard livestock) ownership in California, Oregon and Hawaii has become increasingly commonplace in both rural and urban environments. Rapidly moving these animals during a wildfire or flood event is often challenging, leading to abandonment and mortality. Recent wildfires and floods in California, Oregon and Hawaii reflect a trend that demonstrates an increasing frequency of fire and flooding events. These unpredictable phenomena have led to both the abandonment and haphazard response of rescue efforts focused on backyard livestock during natural disaster events. Specifically, following disaster events, staging areas have been set up at a county level which are designed to help with rescue, treatment and re-union of animals with owners. However, communication and collaboration with state and local authorities and backyard livestock owners has been poor. In order to better leverage multiple current efforts, we have developed a team of various stakeholders representing county, state, extension and University efforts. Our goal is to expand and improve communication among multiple stakeholders via the utilization and integration of the CAlifornia Livestock Evacuation (CALE) Mobile App for delivery of emergency response resources for backyard livestock in California, Oregon and Hawaii. Upon completion of the project, a single Pacific Livestock Evacuation (PALE) app will be fully developed and distributed to stakeholders in California, Oregon and Hawaii with the potential to further expand in order to improve communication, knowledge sharing and access to relevant emergency resources in multiple high-risk regions.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Our goal is to expand and improve communication among multiple stakeholders via the utilization and integration of the CAlifornia Livestock Evacuation (CALE) Mobile App for delivery of emergency response resources for backyard livestock in California, Oregon and Hawaii. Upon completion of the project, a single Pacific Livestock Evacuation (PALE) app will be fully developed and distributed to stakeholders in California, Oregon and Hawaii with the potential to further expand in order to improve communication, knowledge sharing and access to relevant emergency resources in multiple high-risk regions.
Project Methods
In order to develop the website and PALE app the following methods are described:Identify resources: For each backyard species (i.e. large and small ruminants, equine and poultry) develop the following resources:Go Bag: Suggested equipment including supplies for feeding, watering, transportation and housing.Water and feed calculator: A water and feed calculator will allow owners to calculate suggested amounts of feed and water with a slider to select how many days they are planning for.List of veterinarians by county which treat animal backyard livestock and poultry: Working with various stakeholders in California, Oregon and Hawaii that are part of and not part of this proposal, a list of private veterinarians by county will be generated. A similar list is posted on the UCCE poultry website under "Find an Expert."List of evacuation center drop off and pick-up: In collaboration with county level disaster coordinators, a database of evacuation centers, staging areas, and reunification centers will be created and managed for California, Oregon and Hawaii counties that have been historically severely impacted by wildfires and flooding events. Currently a cohesive database of planned emergency centers for animals has not been established for California, Oregon and Hawaii. The closest existing resource is emergency plans for 13 of 58 counties listed on the City and County Emergency Plans section of the CARES website.Request for evacuation aid: Public users will be able to request evacuation assistance for their livestock either through providing name, location, number of animals, and species via an online form or by calling a provided number. These submissions will be entered into a request interface either automatically through the form or manually by responders answering the phone. Requests will be shown as "New", "Dispatched", or "Completed", and the state of each request can be changed by responders dispatching evacuation assistance teams. This system will be developed in collaboration with county and state level disaster coordinators for smooth integration into existing procedures.Additional useful information will be leveraged from existing disaster preparedness materials from CDFA-CARES, WIFSS, CVMA, CalFire, Ready.gov and AVMA to assemble relevant information that will be delivered to backyard livestock owners.Develop mobile app for Android and iOS and accompanying website: The Dart language and Flutter framework will be used for cross platform development of native Android and iOS mobile applications. The Android app will be built to function mobile devices up to 6 years old. The iOS app will support iOS 11 and above. The accompanying website will display the same information as the Android and iOS apps but will be more easily accessible via dissemination of links and QR codes in the case of users needing to rapidly connect to resources without downloading an app. Google Firebase will be used for the database, file hosting, and user analytics for both apps and the website. All informational resources will be available to the public without signing in, but accessing the responder interface or tracking of evacuated livestock for public users will require signing in. Public GitHub repositories will be setup both for internal version control and for public bug reporting. The Android app will be submitted to the Google Play store for vetting and approval, and the iOS app will be submitted to the Apple App Store (note: We will submit the CALE app by April of 2024 to the Google Play store). An alpha testing cycle will be completed internally. Once both testing cycles are complete and Google and Apple have approved the respective apps, they will be released for public use.Workshops in targeted communities in Oregon and California: Once the app and the website are developed workshops in historically wildfire and flood affected communities will be delivered. The focus of the meetings will be on emergency preparation and response with an additional focus on how best to use the website and mobile app such as described in the "Identify Resources" section above. The meetings will be in person but an on-line Zoom option will also be facilitated and recorded. The recorded version will be edited and will subsequently be posted on the UCCE Poultry YouTube Channel. This material will be further disseminated via multiple outlets including EDEN via Brian Oatman, who is the California EDEN point of contact and is also the Director of Risk and Safety Services at the University of California Division of Agricultural and Natural Resources and eXtension. Topics that will be discussed at the workshops include:The effects of wildfires on animals including poultry and livestockHow to prepare your animals for evacuationHow to properly set backyard animals to shelter-in-placeCreating defensible spaceAnimal tagging, identifications, notificationsResources available for sheltering your animalReuniting with your animalBeta testing of the PALE App: In order to assess the functionality of the app a staged emergency drill will be organized with various stakeholder groups in California, Oregon and Hawaii such as participants in our workshops, disaster responders, 4-H and other stakeholders identified from our collective outreach efforts. Likert based and open-text based surveys will be generated in order to better understand the overall efficacy and utility of the workshops and technologies (i.e. PALE app and associated website). Crucially, input from disaster responders on areas for improvement will be incorporated into the version released to the public for use during a disaster scenario.Advertise app via multiple extension efforts: To increase knowledge about emergency/ disaster preparedness and equip owners of BYP and BYL to build their personalized disaster / emergency plan, we will deliver three workshops, one month apart to two targeted county clusters each year. The workshops will also provide interactive exercises with the CALE app.Formal evaluation plan for both workshops and website/app functionality