May is Wildfire Awareness Month

Wildfire Evacuation
Wildfire Evacuation

In the past few months, many locations in Nebraska have experienced wildfires. The Betty’s Way Fire in the North Platte area impacted 71,000-acres. It is important to continue to share messages and resources to help our residents and communities prepare for wildfires.

Here are just a few resources monitor wildfire risk in Nebraska, air quality and help support your efforts to promote wildfire awareness:
• Nebraska Forest Service Interactive Wildfire Risk Assessment Tool - https://nebraskawildfirerisk.com/
• AirNow.gov (Realtime Air Quality) - https://www.airnow.gov/
• Nebraska Extension:
o Disaster Education – Home, Health & Safety - https://disaster.unl.edu/home-health-and-safety| Wildfires - https://disaster.unl.edu/wildfires
o CropWatch Wildfire Resources for Ag Producers - https://cropwatch.unl.edu/tags/wildfire
o UNL Beef – Fire Resources - https://beef.unl.edu/fire
• Wildfires (Preparedness, Staying Safe During, After a Wildfire) – Ready.gov - https://www.ready.gov/wildfires#resources
• Wildfire Social Media Toolkit – Ready.gov - https://www.ready.gov/wildfire-safety-social-media-toolkit
• Wildfire Outreach – US Fire Administration - https://www.usfa.fema.gov/wui/outreach/
• Wildfires – The Center for Food Security and Public Health, Iowa State University - https://www.prep4agthreats.org/Natural-Disasters/wildfires

Submitted by Soni Cochran, scochran2@unl.edu