Workshops

February 24 and 26

The National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) and the VegDRI project team travelled to California February 24-26, 2009, for two RMA drought workshops.

The first listening session on February 24, 2009, took place in Coalinga at Harris Ranch. It focused on obtaining direct feedback for the Vegetation Drought Response Index (VegDRI) project and also introduced the experimental Vegetation Drought Response Outlook (VegOut) project. The 21 participants at this listening session included producers, ranchers, agri-business, the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), the California Polytechnic State University, the University of California-Davis extension, and also the region’s Risk Management Agency Office. Public participation methods included the use of a “sticky wall” with pre-developed questions, which aided in generating discussion and feedback from the group.

The February 26 workshop was in Woodland, California at the Heidrick Ag History Center. It focused on several drought management tools including VegDRI and VegOut. This group of 75 participants included producers, ranchers, media personnel, agencies such as the National Weather Service and NOAA, private biosciences businesses, the Yolo County FSA, University of California-Davis Extension, Recreation and Tourism, USDA-NRCS, and the USDA-RMA office within the area. Local presentations included an overview of the historical climate conditions from the California State Climatologist, a summary of recent drought and climate conditions by the National Weather Service (NWS) office in Sacramento and also a presentation by the USDA-FSA office on the California Drought Declaration Process. The NDMC included discussion sessions related to the specific drought informational tools.

Dr. Brian Wardlow, NDMC, and Bob Smith, RMA, at the Harris Ranch VegDRI listening session.

Karin Callahan, VegDRI project team member, helped facilitate a VegDRI listening session at Harris Ranch in Coalinga, California.

Bastrop, Texas

February 11, 2009

The National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) visited Bastrop, Texas, on February 11 for a RMA drought informational workshop that highlighted the decision support and risk management tools and/or projects of the NDMC, including VegDRI. This listening session was hosted by the Lower Colorado River Authority and took place at McKinney Roughs, which is their outdoor education and outreach center. The area was in D4, exceptional drought, at the time of the workshop. The group of nearly 100 participants represented producers, ranchers, media, academics (including researchers), meteorologists, and policymakers.

One of the sessions included a panel made of representatives from local agencies and offices such as the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA), the National Weather Service (NWS), and the Texas State Climatologist. The NDMC moderated the panel and posed questions collected from the audience throughout the day. The NDMC also used the audience response system to gather feedback on the drought management tools that were presented.

Dr. Brian Wardlow, VegDRI project leader leading a discussion session in Bastrop, Texas.

A participant used a clicker, part of an audience response system, to provide information on the usefulness of a drought tool during the VegDRI listening session in Bastrop, Texas

Panel Discussion in Bastrop, Texas

Walla Walla and Cheney, Washington

November 11-12, 2008

A VegDRI listening session at the Walla Walla Regional Airport on November 11 focused on obtaining feedback for the Vegetation Drought Response Index (VegDRI) project and also introduced the experimental Vegetation Drought Response Outlook (VegOut) project. There were 13 participants at this listening session, representing producers, agri-business, University of Washington Extension, and also the region’s Risk Management Agency. While most participants were from Washington, one was from Northern Oregon. Public participation methods included the use of an audience response system (clickers). Focused questions stimulated discussion and feedback from the group.

Another workshop on November 12 in Cheney, Washington, focused on the whole set of drought management tools that the NDMC is developing with RMA sponsorship: the Drought Impact Reporter (DIR), VegDRI, VegOut, and The GreenLeaf Project (a collaborative RMA project between the NDMC and University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Computer Science and Engineering Center). The group of 20 participants included producers, ranchers, media, the Spokane County Conservation District (SCCD), RMA, and the National Weather Service (NWS). The workshop also included participation and a presentation from Oregon State University on irrigation scheduling methods, which is also a RMA grant-funded project. Other local presentations included an overview of recent climate conditions from the National Weather Service office in Spokane and a presentation by the SCCD on Washington State’s Revolving Insurance Funds.

Dr. Tsegaye Tadesse presented the VegOut project. The NDMC used an audience response system (clickers) and a “sticky wall” (to the right of the projection screen) to stimulate discussion and to gain feedback for the VegDRI/VegOut/DIR projects.

The National Drought Mitigation Center’s (NDMC)’s Washington State workshops reached the targeted stakeholders. We received written and verbal feedback from potential users of the tools and collected contact information from many individuals for further dialogue.

Wolf Point, MT

March 12, 2008

A VegDRI workshop hosted by the Fort Peck Tribes was held at the Fort Peck Community College in Wolf Point, MT, on March 12, 2008. The workshop was intended to introduce local agricultural producers, tribal natural resource managers, and governmental agency representatives to the VegDRI tools and products. Feedback was also collected from the group of 38 participants regarding the general utility of VegDRI and the specific informational product needs for their respective interests. Carl Four Star, the water resources administrator for the Fort Peck Reservation, also presented the current drought planning and mitigation activities on the tribal lands and discussed how a tool such as VegDRI would be useful for these activities.

San Angelo, TX

April 24, 2008

VegDRI was presented at the Drought Planning Tools Workshop held at the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center in San Angelo, TX. In addition to VegDRI, workshop participants were introduced to a number of other complimentary drought monitoring tools being developed at the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC), such as the Drought Impact Reporter (DIR) (http://droughtreporter.unl.edu/) and Drought Atlas. The workshop had 80+ attendees that included local ranchers and farmers, local and state government representatives, Texas A&M extension experts, and National Weather Service personnel.

Other Meetings

Boulder, CO
February 6-7, 2008: Dr. Brian Wardlow presented VegDRI at the NIDIS (National Integrated Drought Information System) Knowledge Assessment Workshop: Contributions of Satellite Remote Sensing to Drought Monitoring (http://wwa.colorado.edu/current_projects/nidis_remote_sensing_workshop.html) on February 6-7, 2008, in Boulder, CO. VegDRI was one of several operational remote sensing-based tools spotlighted at the meeting in an effort to identify the current ‘state-of-the-art’ vegetation drought monitoring approaches in the United States for the user community and provide recommendations on how such tools can be implemented in cross-sector/agency early warning drought monitoring strategies.
Boston, MA
April 16, 2008: Dr. Brian Wardlow presented VegDRI results from 2007 in a natural hazards session at the American Association of Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting in Boston, MA. The ‘convergence of evidence’ evaluation strategy implemented for VegDRI was discussed and specific examples of VegDRI’s performance during the 2007 growing season were presented for selected locations in the central United States.

Publications

VegDRI Factsheet

The Vegetation Drought Response Index (VegDRI): A New Integrated Approach for Monitoring Drought Stress in Vegetation