Wildfire across agricultural landscapes: farmer and rancher experiences and perceptions in the southern great plains

ABSTRACT

Wildfire frequency and intensity has increased across the Southern Great Plains of the United States and other similar landscapes worldwide in part due to climate change. It is important that policymakers, practitioners, and the agricultural community better understand the impact from increased wildfire incidence and severity across different agricultural landscapes. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of wildfires across an agricultural landscape of the Southern Great Plains. Using primary data collected from semi-structured interviews of farmers and ranchers in the study region, we quantitatively explore farmers’ and ranchers’ perceptions and experiences about wildfires in the Southern Great Plains of the U.S. About 80% of the producers interviewed had directly experienced wildfire on their property, including significant losses to farmer livelihoods, food stocks (crops and livestock), forages, native grasslands, and structures (building and fencing). Many producers perceived wildfire frequency had increased and another megafire event was very likely. To help reduce wildfire risk for producers in the Southern Great Plains more timely education and outreach efforts about wildfire mitigation, organisation of local fire associations, more timely disaster assistance, and innovative insurance solutions would be useful.

Key policy highlights

1. Farmers and ranchers face significant wildfire risk in the Southern Great Plains, a grassland dominated landscape, where public and pooled resources for wildfire mitigation and suppression are scarcer.

2. Policymakers and emergency planners need to be aware of the impacts from wildfires on grassland dominated agricultural landscapes, including losses to farmer livelihoods, food stocks (crops and livestock), forages, native grasslands, structures (building and fencing), amongst others that may occur.

3. More research and education concerning wildfire impacts and mitigation on agricultural landscapes needs to be conducted, such as organising local fire associations, more effectively pooling local resources, and innovative insurance solutions.

KEYWORDS:

• Kansas
• megafire
• Oklahoma
• Texas
• risk
• preparedness

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Ricardo Aranha, Rachel Cannon, Pablo Gonzalez Villalonga, Megan Hill, Alan Hinds, Drew Krause, Rebecca Lima Albuquerque Maranhao, and Logan Romero for their assistance with data collection efforts in the field.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data is available from the authors upon request and will be considered if the requestee has obtained proper human subjects approvals and training.

Notes

1 Counties included Barber, Clark, Commanche, Ford, Grant, Gray, Haskell, Kiowa, Meade, Morton, Pratt, Seward, Stanton and Stevens in Kansas; Alfalfa, Beaver, Beckham, Cimarron, Custer, Dewey, Ellis, Harper, Major, Roger Mills, Texas, Washita, Woods and Woodward in Oklahoma; and Carson, Dallam, Gray, Hansford, Hartley, Hemphill, Hutchison, Lipscomb, Moore, Ochiltree, Oldham, Potter, Roberts, Sherman and Wheeler in Texas.

2 Given that many farmers operated farm land across multiple counties and even across state lines within the study region, we did not specifically analyse differences across county or state boundaries within the study region.

Additional information

Funding

This work was partially supported by the (1) National Science Foundation under Grant Award No. 2117533; (2) the National Science Foundation under Grant Award No. OIA-2148878 with matching support from the State of Kansas through the Kansas Board of Regents; (3) an intramural research programme of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Hatch-Multistate project 7003361; and (4) an IRG grant from the Chapman Center for Rural Studies at Kansas State University. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.