When Disaster Strikes
Summary
In this episode of Shared Soil, Kendall and Rebecca discuss disaster preparedness in agriculture with Olivia Saunders. The conversation underscores the importance of preparedness and community resilience in agriculture.
Show notes:
Integrated Pest Management (IPM): https://extension.unh.edu/agriculture-gardens/pest-disease-growing-tools/integrated-pest-management-ipm
Wholistic Management Institute Training - https://www.holisticmanagement.org/programs
Wendy Johnecheck – wendy.johnecheck@unh.edu
USDA Floodwater vs. Pondwater - https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2023-05/FloodingFrequency_Maximum.pdf
NH Emergency Preparedness - https://www.readynh.gov/
https://www.dhhs.nh.gov/programs-services/emergency-preparedness-response-recovery
UNH Extension – https://www.extension.unh.edu
Farm Service Agency (FSA) - https://www.fsa.usda.gov/
Natural Resources Conservation Service - https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/
Disaster Recovery Assistance - https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs-initiatives/ewp-emergency-watershed-protection/ewp-disaster-recovery-assistance
NY Center for Agricultural Health and Medicine and Health (NYCAMH) - https://www.nycamh.org/
Disaster Animal Response Teams (DART) - https://www.dhhs.nh.gov/programs-services/emergency-preparedness-response-recovery/new-hampshire-disaster-animal-response
NH Climate Assessment 2021 - https://scholars.unh.edu/sustainability/71/
Women in Ag Newsletter signup - https://unhoutreach.tfaforms.net/217751?CID=701G0000001AiKCIA0
Olivia Saunders – olivia.saunders@unh.edu
Kendall Kunelius – kendall.kunelius@unh.edu
Rebecca Dube – rebecca.dube@unh.edu
Guest Olivia Saunders
Transcript
Transcript:
Kendall Kunelius 00:09
Welcome to this episode of Shared Soil, a podcast dedicated to creating community, honoring challenges and encouraging personal and professional growth for all people in agriculture. My name is Kendall Kunelius, and I'm a county-based field specialist in the area of agricultural business management.
Rebecca Dube 00:25
I'm Rebecca Dube, providing technology and administrative support to UNH Extension.
Kendall Kunelius 00:29
So today we're going to talk about a topic that I think we don't really like to think about as farmers. This includes things like natural disasters, so flooding, diseases, pests, crop failures, that kind of thing.
Rebecca Dube 00:42
Oh, this is getting depressing!
Kendall Kunelius 00:44
I know, but the good news is good planning and risk management can help alleviate or lessen the impacts of those incidents. So that's why we have Olivia Saunders on the podcast today to help us understand a little bit more about disaster planning and understanding how to manage your farm and manage your facility or your large scale garden to help avoid those unwanted disasters, things like crop failures. So Olivia, can you give us a little bit of an introduction to yourself?
Olivia Saunders 01:12
Sure. Thanks for the invitation. Kendall. My name is Olivia Saunders. I work with UNH Extension in our fruit and vegetable production area, but more recently, my work has been focusing on - Well, first I'll back up and say, for a long time I've done a lot of work in soil health and cover cropping, and so that sort of led into climate resilience topics, which is often rooted in soil health practices. Just seeing the number of extreme weather events affecting our farmers, and my desire to learn more about how I can work with farmers to support them in their climate resilience on their farm and with their land. So a lot of my programming now currently focuses on that, and then also disaster resilience as well across the state.
Rebecca Dube 01:56
Wow. Thank you. Olivia. Well tell me, why should small scale farmers and home gardeners be thinking about disaster preparedness now, given the changes that we're seeing in our climate?
Olivia Saunders 02:07
I think you know, similar to how we practice integrated pest management, or we take steps to control insects, it's just a way to protect your investment that you've made. Any gardener knows you can spend a lot of money and time and effort, and so taking a few steps or thinking about extreme weather and how you can protect your assets, whether that's your crops or your livestock, is just a smart way to protect your investment that you've made. So that you can still get the harvest that you wanted, and protect your land, your land resource, as well.
Rebecca Dube 02:40
Yeah, because extreme weather is becoming more the norm than the exception these days.
Olivia Saunders 02:46
Yes, it does seem that way. It seems like in the last three or four years, it's been one thing, if not the other. And so, you know, I think that's a pattern that we just need to become more comfortable with and familiar with and be prepared for both in your own garden or farm, but then also at the community level as well.
Kendall Kunelius 03:07
I think that's an interesting note to say, though, is just being more prepared, and the community level really strikes me as something that we don't always pay enough attention to. The farming community as a whole is a demographic, right? We often purchase from suppliers. So the success of our crop, or the failure of our crop, also impacts another layer of businesses above us and beside us, and it also impacts the people who depend on on farmers for food. So I think what you're saying about the community aspect is a really key thing. If you were to talk a little bit about how you think various communities could support farmers in that way, what would you say to a farmer in terms of those suggestions? How do you think that in-between would work, or that interaction would work?
Olivia Saunders 03:54
Absolutely, I think community in disaster is I mean, there's books about this, right? There's stories about the blessed, the beautiful community that arises after a disaster event and people coming together to support one another. And if it's a farm, then it's maybe where are you sourcing feed and grain, and how are you getting it there, trucking it there? The community that comes around to help each other out after or during a disaster event. And so how can you build that community now in those blue sky days and support each other, and create that network where your neighbor knows that you have livestock that should be in a particular fence? And where if you needed someone to help you water them or feed them, who are those neighbors that you can call, that you can trust, that you have a relationship with? And then, even at your town and county level, how is your town set up to support the community during a disaster event? There's a town up here where the school, which is often used for, what do you call it, an emergency shelter! The school is in a floodplain, and so that doesn't really work then when there's a flooding event. And so how does the town then respond to that? Where can you house people during a disaster event? And how can the community arise to meet that need?Again, in the blue sky day when you're level-headed and can think strategically so that you are prepared.
Kendall Kunelius 05:24
That's a really good point. It makes me think of taking the Holistic Management Institute training, the whole farm planning. One of the most interesting speakers that we heard in that training was an older gentleman. He and his wife had been farming for many years, and one of the decisions they made because they were older, and in part they needed more help on the farm; they lived next to an Amish community, and when they started replacing their equipment, they actually worked with their neighbors who were going to be coming over and helping them out, and decided to replace their equipment with more horse drawn implements. So they have a horse-drawn snow plow, that kind of stuff. And I'm thinking of disaster doesn't always just mean, like natural around us. It could be you falling and breaking your leg. It could be you have a health incident as the farmer and you need help. I think emergency preparedness comes on every level, and I just thought that was a really interesting example of someone who was thinking all the way through a decision with an emergency plan in mind about informing their purchase
Olivia Saunders 06:24
Totally, and I think these things - whether it's a house fire, barn fire, yes, an accident, someone is ill and can't attend to their animals or water their greenhouse for a week because they're in the hospital, or there's a large scale hurricane that wipes through the region. I think some of these preparedness steps are going to help, regardless of what happens. It's just like, how widespread is that? And how can my community help me? Can I go to the neighbors to take a shower? Or do they also, you know, the power is also out there. But I think thinking through some of those disaster events, whether it's localized to your property or your health, versus more widespread; how you prepare is going to be very similar and just kind of working through that. I think that's one of the things I would recommend: a homeowner, an individual, a farmer, a gardener. It doesn't really matter your scale, you can be disaster-prepared. And taking those few steps, thinking through the scenarios, and I think we have some questions later on about that. I may dive into it a little bit more, but I think any individual should be disaster-prepared, and that doesn't need to come from a place of anxiety. It can just come from a place of preparedness. And for me, at least, it's a way to feel more confident for whatever might happen. You know, I have a big jug that I can fill up with water if I'm expecting the power to go out, and I'm good with, you know, having the water I need for a few days' time. That's not coming from a place of anxiety, just a preparedness.
Rebecca Dube 07:56
And I'm hearing some echoes in what you're saying, Olivia, with our Agritourism episode in which the importance of community. And on, like you said, on a blue sky day, that your neighbors know what elements you have on your farm or what your needs are, and you know what your neighbors' needs are, who to go see in case of an emergency, who needs extra help or what type of things need to be taken care of. So just the overall idea of community is so important to all of these ideas and issues, farming, gardening, all those elements.
Olivia Saunders 08:33
Totally, and I think we saw that during Hurricane Irene, which had hit New England over 10 years ago, and Covid. Where could you get resources? Where could you get food? Where could you get what you needed? Who was prepared? It was the farms. You know, the farms still were milking. They had meat. And so I think that's an important thing in those times of crisis when you can't make it to the grocery store. The farmers still have - they're still growing product. It's still there, and they're there to serve the community. So I think that's an interesting piece, too. I heard a farmer tell a story about how they got isolated during Hurricane Irene, and there was just, oddly, a group of students there with them, and the students were all so worried, what how are we going to eat? And they're like, "Don't worry, the food comes from here! We're good!"
Kendall Kunelius 09:26
That's really interesting. So let's look very specifically at weather-related disasters, like you had just mentioned Hurricane Irene. Weather is the thing that kind of affects all of us, right? And it will impact all of us in the same kind of way, whether it's a drought or whether it is a hurricane or extreme events in general. So those are becoming more common in our region. So how might they impact a garden or a homestead all the way up to a commercial, a commercial size farm, so something like 100 acres?
Olivia Saunders 09:56
Yeah, I think we can just kind of look back at the last couple years as some pretty good examples of what we can anticipate moving forward again. It's the frequency of these events happening more than in the past. So as the atmosphere warms, there's more water that can be held in the atmosphere, and so that means there's longer periods between those rainfall events. And when the rain does fall, it's usually at a heavier rate, instead of, in my memory, growing up in New England, we get these nice, gentle evening rains that come throughout the night and saturate the soil in that nice summer rain. And you know, that's becoming more rare. When that happens, I'm like, Oh, that's so lovely. But what happens is, we're getting longer periods between those rainfall events, so there's intermittent drought, and then when it does come, it's very you know, this year has been very sporadic, even within a town, someone got drenched and someone else got nothing. And those rain clouds are very sporadic, and when they do come, they're very heavy. Those are kind of how the peak summer season are being affected. And then when we look out to the shoulder seasons, and then winter, we're not getting as many - depending on your location, the coldest night temperatures are increasing. And so around the Concord area, south that means we might in the coming decades have winters that don't go below freezing. So that's freezing rain. That's rain in the winter months instead of snow. That means there's a lot of freeze thaw happening in the soil, which can affect your perennial crops, both hay alfalfa, but also your tree, fruit and perennial plants, as that freeze/thaw cycle happens, and the root zone might be affected by the movement of the soil, and without that protected snow cover. Yeah, and then also a lengthening of the season. Depending on your location, there's probably five to 10 more days per decade of growing season length, and I think we're seeing a lot of that extended season. So that's like the frost-free season in the fall. So I wouldn't at this point change my spring planting dates as a gardener or farmer, but we're definitely seeing warmer Octobers and later frosts happening. We can get into a little bit more about what you can do for those things, but that's kind of what I would expect to see.
Rebecca Dube 12:27
Well, along those lines, then what are some of the first simple steps that someone can take to make their garden or small farm more resilient to storms, floods or droughts?
Olivia Saunders 12:40
Yes, totally. So I mentioned in the beginning, I came to this because of my interest in soil health, and I think that's one of the best first places to start is looking at your soil and how it how spongy it is. I like to think of soil as a sponge, and so when we get those extreme two to four-inch rainfall events, how capable is your soil of absorbing that water, and then how capable is that soil of holding onto that water, because it might not rain for another month. So adding compost, cover cropping, any way you can incorporate organic matter or mulch into your garden or farm is going to help boost that organic matter in the soil and help make it more resilient. So I always think that soil health is a great first place to start. Another technique we see frequently is growing in covered structures, in a high tunnel or unheated high tunnel or greenhouse. And you see this on farms a lot, but there's definitely DIY, small-scale ones you can build yourself as a home gardener to protect your precious tomato or pepper crops from a two inch, four inch rain event. You know that's really damaging, can be really damaging to a plant. So it's just a little bit more of a controlled environment to help buffer it from those extremes, as well as the wind. And I think we hail up here last month, so you just never know. And that is, you know, part of being in New England. So soil health, growing in controlled structures are two of the main things. And then, if you have any sort of storage crop like a chest freezer or a walk-in cooler, you definitely need to have a backup generator, and you need to know how to use it. And ideally, that generator or that cooler or freezer should be hooked to an alarm system, because the power goes out for any number of reasons throughout the year, and so you don't want to lose thousands of dollars worth of your investment because the power went out on that cooler and you didn't keep it within the right temperature. So that's just another simple one I would definitely do if I had a chest freezer full of meat.
Kendall Kunelius 14:55
It's a big investment. I have to save up before I buy a whole pig, or half a cow, or something like that. But even, I actually, literally just yesterday, finished freezing all of my various broths and tomato sauces and that kind of stuff. And that's kind of important to me. That's a lot of labor I put into preserving my harvest. So it would just be a big shame. It would be a shame to lose that. But I also think for some folks, they really depend on that financially, and otherwise it's, it really is like the, I don't say it's survival, but for some people, it means, you know, you're eating very well and healthy during the winter, versus not.
Olivia Saunders 15:31
Right, and if the power goes out in February, maybe the meat is fine, but if it goes out in October, and then it warms up, that's gonna be a lot harder to keep that product frozen.
Kendall Kunelius 15:44
So being a business person, I'm always looking about ways to either save a dollar, or if I'm gonna make an expense, I'm gonna spend some money on something, I want to make sure it's the right thing I'm spending money on. And I talked to farmers about that too, about assessing; is the piece of equipment you want to buy the right piece of equipment? Do you want to spend money on that? Or do you want to wait until you find just the right thing for you? So I'm curious, are there any low-cost or beginner-friendly strategies that make a big difference in protecting crops, animals or property during extreme weather?
Olivia Saunders 16:18
Yes, definitely. I think the simplest thing is just think through a plan, a very basic plan about what you might do in the event of a big category five hurricane, for example, something that we know has good likelihood of happening at some point. Thinking through a few of those steps. One of the things I've done since learning, digging into this a little bit more, is protect my personal documents: my Social Security, birth certificate, etc. And put that in a fire safe box or flood proof box. If I need to evacuate my house really quickly, I know right where that is. It's in a big box. I can grab it and go and all those documents that I need for your family are should be right in that bin. And if there was ever a house fire, I hope that those documents would be safe. I also know where my passport is. Usually when I travel, I'm like, "Where the heck did I put that thing?" Now I know it's right in that box. So the other thing to think about is we live in a time of online passwords and online accounts. And so if you did lose your laptop, your computer, do you have a record of those somewhere, maybe digitally, because if you do lose everything from whatever the event might be, how are you going to recover that? So that's another thing to think about is storing those online passwords and accounts somewhere, maybe with a trusted family member or in the cloud that's password-protected. The other thing I think about when how to invest, like you were asking, what's worthwhile and investing, it's really looking at your landscape and doing a risk assessment. Are you near a river? How prone are you to drought, which may be determined by your soil type, and doing a risk assessment for your own property, if you're a farmer or a garden. During a rain event, I'm going to go outside, I'm going to look and watch how the water moves through my landscape, and where is it pooling? Is it coming up against the building? And maybe that floodwater is getting into my barn. Is there something I can do about that? You know, just standing still looking at how that rainwater, floodwater is moving. Is there a ditch or a drain that I need to install to help move that water through my system? Do I need to have raised beds in my garden or farm to keep the roots from getting wet and so I can still get in there? And so what specific things you might need are really going to be determined by your site, your landscape, what you're doing. It's really a basic risk assessment in like, okay, I know these soils are prone to drought, so I'm going to dig a deeper well, you know, whatever it might be. But looking at where those risks are, and then how you can either purchase equipment or do something different, management wise, on your land.
Kendall Kunelius 19:17
So two things come to mind. First, when we were talking about the digital stuff, I think that's really applicable to farmers who have self-serve farm stands. I'm thinking about people who have, like, the square systems, that's all digital. It's all electronic, thinking about like - Well, I mean, knock on wood, we don't want people losing their farm stands. But what happens if that burns down, if there's theft, if something happens to all that product inside, as well as the piece of equipment that has your digital record keeping on it, for the financials, all that kind of stuff. So that was really - I'd never thought about that before, but I think that's a really important thing to talk to farmers about, or just homeowners in general. I'm also thinking about one of the lowest cost things that I think you can plan for, but it's really important, is manure management and nutrient management. If you're a livestock farmer, (I think like a raindrop) I think a lot about that water movement, not only because, obviously the livestock need to consume water, but I think about do you have a liquid manure storage system for something like a cow versus manure pile, like a compost pile, like a horse? How do you handle a more dry texture manure? I'm thinking like a rabbit pellet or like a shavings manure mix like chickens. Where are those held or composted, and how are you handling that? I'm also thinking about: a compost pile is really important for disease management and disposing of carcasses. So if you have a really good, hot compost pile, and you unfortunately have a disease event for animals on your farm, that could be a low-cost wave vet approved and state approved. If it's an issue like a controllable disease, or something like that, or attracting or a disease that we're watching, a reportable disease, is what I'm trying to say. But I think it's a great insurance policy which also gives back to your farm if you have a good, healthy compost pile for for an incident like that.
Olivia Saunders 21:14
Yeah, it's definitely a good point. And I think you know who can you call on, especially if you have livestock, because if you don't have an understanding of animals and livestock, you don't want anyone out there going to help you in a time of need. So having, again, we talked about the community in the in the earlier part, but who from your community has experienced moving livestock, handling livestock if they have somehow gotten out of the fence in there, down river, whatever is there. Someone that's trained in livestock handling that can help bring them back to you. And I agree, how to handle mortality on a farm. Hopefully most livestock farmers have some knowledge of that, but definitely worth thinking through. And if there was a larger scale event, like a big hurricane that came through and flooded. I think there would be likely some state or federal support in managing those if there was a large scale mortality event, but having that ability to compost is how most farmers would handle that.
Kendall Kunelius 22:19
Yeah, I'm even thinking that there's that community aspect again, right? I have a whole flock of backyard chickens, and I'm thinking, I don't have a place on my farm that I could, or I should say, on my land, that I could effectively have a compost pile hot enough or big enough to compost a flock if I had a die-off event. But is there a farm I could take them to that has a facility big enough, or an appropriately sized compost pile? Thinking of things too, you know, if you have a horse that dies in the middle of the winter, how are you gonna bury that? How are you gonna transplant that? How are you going to transport it to a facility that it can be then taken care of in that way? I'm also thinking about the equipment aspect. Do you know someone who has a backhoe, or do you have a tractor that you can use to turn the compost pile? Do you have a piece of equipment large enough that you can pull in a deceased animal out of a barn? I'm thinking dairy cows, that's a really small barn with a lot of large animals in it. So do you have someone that you know, or do you have an appropriate piece of equipment that you could use to remove that kind of unfortunate event or diseased animal? A lot of things to think all the way around, but the community aspect is definitely coming out as a common theme here.
Olivia Saunders 23:33
Yeah, and I think it's like, wow, these are decidedly not fun things to think about. But when something like this happens, you don't want to be spending days figuring this out, you especially if it's hot out or summer. You want that animal processed, for lack of a better term. So thinking about it now and just a brief plan. It doesn't need to be all penciled out, but just a few steps that you think through now could really save a lot of heartache later on.
Kendall Kunelius 24:04
True Olivia, one question that comes to mind that I'm very curious about. I've had farmers ask me about this before. If you have a crop in a field, I'm thinking, like a crop grown tomato, peppers, even, I know we have some farmers who do grow, oh, like a pumpkin, something like that out in a field, and you have a flood event. What are the food safety repercussions of that? Could you then still salvage that crop, if the fruit itself wasn't destroyed, or the plant survived that flooding? But we aren't sure about the safety of the water, the source of the water, I don't know if you want to speak to that for a second. How would I handle that?
Olivia Saunders 24:41
That's can be a big and complicated one, but just a high level response. You know, I think it's always good if you do have a question to reach out to your local Extension educator or Wendy Johnechek is our state food safety specialist, and you might have one if you're listening in from a different state. But connecting with a food safety specialist on this certainly would be recommended; making sure you know the difference between flood water and ponded water. So that would be like puddles that are on the farm. Flood water is very different than ponded water, according to the USDA. Flood water can contain contaminants, pollutants, all kinds of nasty stuff. And so if that touches a edible crop that's considered contaminated and you cannot sell it. And you need to manage your field and clean that up and let it rest for a certain period of time before you can get back in there, especially if there's any silt or soil that was deposited with those flood waters, which often happens, you know, in a reverse situation. So, yeah, if your crop, whether it was a Brussels sprout that you cook. Pumpkin, you're not probably eating, so you could still sell that if it was ready to be harvested. The other thing is, if that flood water stuck around for 24-48 hours, those roots have been flooded, and so it's gonna be very hard for that plant to recover from that flooded environment where the roots weren't getting oxygen, the oxygen that they needed. So depending on the timing of the flooding event, the plant might die. Anyways, if it's something like corn that's grown high up in the air, and maybe the roots got flooded, but the ear, the corn ear, was still safe. That could be a scenario where you could still harvest that but again, just depending on how long that flood water hung around, the plant might not be too happy,
Rebecca Dube 26:42
So then, what's one habit or mindset shift overall that you'd recommend for anyone who wants to farm or garden successfully in this changing climate?
Olivia Saunders 26:52
Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of people avoid thinking about climate change and extreme weather because it's a real downer. For me personally, learning about what we should anticipate and what types of changes we can expect with our climate helps me feel more prepared and ready. And so I really like, I want to learn about what's happening and what the coming decades are going to look like, and how I should invest my time and my resources so I can be prepared and help prepare farmers. That knowledge helps me be more resilient, so I don't really try to shy away from learning about disasters, because that's how I can learn to be more prepared, both individually and on the community level, and how my town can be more prepared, how we as an agriculture community can be more prepared. And then I would also say that preparedness is an ongoing process, right? Like I took one step and I protected my important documents, and now I'm going to take another step, and it should be a living document. If you have a plan in place, you have a SOP that should be iterative, and you should be working on it. I didn't touch on this before, but another practice that a farm could do is actually invite your local fire department out to the property and have them do a walk-through. You know, if there was a reason you needed to call 911, someone's having a health event, what would that look like when they're on a farm that maybe has many different fields. They maybe have one address, but like, it's 100 acres, and someone's out in the back 40. It's like, how is the fire department gonna find them? Yeah, and so just kind of walking through those things with your fire department could be a helpful way to help you be more prepared and take a few steps to help, help them help you. So, yeah, just to answer your question, I don't try to avoid, I do enjoy learning about this so that I can help my community and myself on a personal level, be more prepared.
Kendall Kunelius 28:46
I think one of the unique things about New England, as well as we have such varied terrain. I think about the White Mountain Range, that's a very different topography than somewhere like Cheshire county or even Hillsborough County. Disaster Preparedness depends a lot on what region you're in and the resources that are already there. I think about how some of our fire departments in the area where I live have a forestry vehicle, like a forestry rescue vehicle that's designed to be able to access the back 40. But not every department has one of those. So I really love your idea of having someone come out and assess your property, but you also knowing what they have for resources, so that you know what's coming to get you if there's an issue, if something happened.
Olivia Saunders 29:28
Absolutely, yeah, just knowledge and what you do with it. It's up to you.
Rebecca Dube 29:33
And I know you need to know locally who to contact and what's going on in your community. But are there any other overall contacts that you should make, maybe shortly after a disaster, to reach out for help? Any resources we can say to our listeners?
Olivia Saunders 29:48
Yeah, there is a New Hampshire Emergency Preparedness website, and there they have emergency texting service. If there is an event, that's the way they will communicate across the state, and so making sure you're signed up for that texting service is one thing you can do. I follow my local energy company's social media, because that's often where they're posting response times for restoration of power. And so figuring out who's supplying your power and maybe getting on their email, or if you use social media, following them there. That seems to be something I do every November through spring, as we get power outages. And then if there was a larger scale event, certainly the extension service would have some information on our website. If you are a commercial farm, then the Farm Service Agency sometimes helps with disaster relief programs, and they have various ones, as well as the NRCS Natural Resources Conservation Service. I would say there's a whole industry of disaster response. And so probably if you do have a relationship with your county educator in Extension, and you're a farm, that might be the best place to start, and they can help walk you through who you might call on for assistance. The other thing you can do is just document any losses with your your phone, your camera, in case you need to make a claim with your insurance or with Farm Service Agency. The other thing you can do, you can start working on recovery. Say, your driveway washed out. There's a ditch that filled in. You can document what happened, and you can start to make those repairs, especially if the water is still falling. But again, just documenting all that, what you did and why, and then you can make that claim later on. But it's complicated. I think once, if there is a larger scale event, it's very hard to navigate that service provider industry. And so that was one reason that drew me to this is just, I wanted to learn more about, well, what, what are the steps? Who is involved? So I would just say, start with your local county educator, and see how they can help you.
Rebecca Dube 32:02
Sure. We'll include some of those references you stated in our show notes.
Kendall Kunelius 32:05
And there are actually some cool organizations that do training for first responders out in New York. There's Bassett Healthcare, and there's NYCAM, New York Center for Agricultural Health and Medicine, and they do training for fire departments. So I'm thinking like they've done a large animal rescue training. They do grain bin rescue. So if you're in a grain bin and you start to get sucked under by the grain training and equipment. Helpful for that. It is really interesting once you start digging into how much support is available, I think you hit the nail on the head when you said it's just knowing how to enter that support network, and what the best, most efficient use of your time is to, in terms of getting the right people to help you and get on your team.
Olivia Saunders 32:50
Yeah. I don't know if you remember this Kendall, but when we took that training a year or so ago, where we learned about the disaster Animal Response Teams. DART is what that acronym is. And there's a real need for more people to serve on those response teams. You would get training and you work in an official capacity, but if you do have livestock background and you want to join a response team, that could be a really amazing way to serve the state that's definitely needed right now. We don't have enough of those, I think, if there was an event. And in those crews, I think we need more with the large animal livestock. But there's also ones that, if someone has pets at home and they're getting rescued, someone that knows how to handle an anxious dog or cat is also really helpful. So there's lots of ways, I think, if you're interested in getting more involved and trained to help out and volunteer.
Kendall Kunelius 33:46
It also makes me think about, you know, we offer our truck and trailer driving classes, but you know how important it is for people to know how to operate equipment that helps them escape or remove those animals, that kind of thing. So I guess what I'm trying to say is knowledge is power, and the more knowledge you can gain, the better off you are in these types of situations. So Olivia, we can't thank you enough for coming on the podcast today and sharing your knowledge, speaking of knowledge, your knowledge and your insight. I just wanted to say anything else that that we didn't cover, that we didn't touch on that you wanted to make sure you shared?
Olivia Saunders 34:23
No, I had a great time talking with you both today. And thanks for the invitation. And if you want to learn more about climate change in New Hampshire, there's a really great climate assessment written by UNH and so I would steer you towards that resource. I can send that to you to include in the show notes as well.
Rebecca Dube 34:40
Terrific. Well, thank you very much, Olivia, and we will be talking to all of you again on the next episode of Shared Soil.
Kendall Kunelius 34:53
Shared Soil is a production of University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension an equal opportunity. Educator and employer. Views expressed on this podcast are not necessarily those of the university, its trustees or its volunteers. Inclusion or exclusion of commercial products in this podcast does not imply endorsement. The University of New Hampshire US Department of Agriculture and New Hampshire counties cooperate to provide extension programming in the Granite State. Learn more@extension.unh.edu.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai. Edited by Rebecca Dube.
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