The message at the First Wyoming Agricultural Stress Symposium was, “We’ve got to diminish the stigma associated with ag stressors, and help others realize we don’t just pick ourselves up by the bootstraps,” after heightened emotional stress caused by Wyoming’s summer wildfires and drought.

A multi-agency partnership hosted the First Wyoming Agricultural Stress Symposium Nov. 13-14 at the University of Wyoming’s Agricultural Resource and Learning Center in Casper, Wyo. Officials from the Wyoming Department of Agriculture, University of Wyoming Extension and Rocky Mountain Farmers Union as well as producers, behavioral health providers and suicide prevention specialists are echoing the message: “It’s been a tough summer, your neighbors are going to need you.”

The life-saving advice was to ask for help when facing stressors.

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“There is that mindset that some people look down on those who have mental health stressors, but everybody has stressors, and mental health is like any other health care. If our heart isn’t functioning, you go to a cardiologist. Same with mental health,” said Donna Hoffman, agriculture and natural resources educator for the University of Wyoming Extension based in Casper, Wyo. She lost her father to suicide in 2020 and is determined to help reduce ag stress. “Looking down at others, isn’t helping anybody’s issues,” she said.

Special training offered through the COMET program called Training the Trainer and implemented in Colorado and other states and shared at this Wyoming symposium has been helping. COMET training teaches people how to intervene when encountering someone in a vulnerable space, and encourages people to reach out and get help before a crisis arises.    

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COMET is an acronym for Changing Our Mental and Emotional Trajectory and helps communities create safety nets. 

“Just by having conversations and connecting with someone in whatever situation they are facing, they learn there are people who care about them and they’re not alone.” said Chad Reznicek, licensed professional counselor and behavioral health state specialist with the Colorado AgrAbility Project, Colorado State University Extension in Fort Collins, Colo. As a COMET-trained Train the Trainer Reznicek traveled from Colorado to offer the program in Wyoming. In turn, those who are trained can go into communities and offer a free 90-minute training that helps them recognize behavioral health distress.

“Somebody may not be suicidal, but something about them could seem ‘off’ and we want them to know we care about them, and they don’t have to face their ag stressor alone,” Hoffman said.

WILDFIRES

Summertime wildfires blazed across Wyoming, in both northern and western Campbell County, Wyoming, near Gillette. There was also the Fish Creek fire between Dubois and Jackson in western Wyoming. In late August, a fire in Johnson County started southeast of Buffalo and stretched to Kaycee, Wyo., and was dubbed the House Draw Fire.

“That fire lasted 35 hours and covered 174,216 acres. Thankfully, no injuries or death to people, but there were some cattle and sheep losses on the 86% privately owned rangeland. Ranchers were able to move their livestock out in front of the fire line and save the majority of their cattle and sheep,” said Micah Most, agriculture and natural resources educator for University of Wyoming Extension based in Buffalo, Wyo.

The Elk fire in Sheridan County in the Big Horn National Forest was finally 100% contained on Nov. 14, 2024. There were also fires in central and eastern Wyoming, including the La Bonte fire in Converse County, and another large fire near Hartville. Most were caused by dry lightning in late summer and early fall, and there were numerous smaller fires around the state, Most said.

DROUGHT

Drought also made for a rugged summer.

“During the week of Oct. 15, all of Wyoming was in D1 or worse conditions. This was the first time since Aug. 24, 2004, that the entire state was covered with drought,” said Tony Bergantino, director of the Wyoming State Climate Office, Water Resources Data System, University of Wyoming, Department of Atmospheric Science and Wyoming CoCoRaHS state coordinator and Wyoming Mesonet director.

The mid-November’s drought improved, dropping to the lowest drought category D0 in southern Carbon County. But for about a month, Wyoming was 100% in drought, Bergantino said. On Aug. 8, the largest area of D4 (the worst drought level) since April 9, 2013, was experienced in Wyoming and also the first D4 occurrence in Wyoming since September 2021.

“Recent rain and snow events helped the situation, creating that improvement in Carbon County along with the removal of D4  and some D3 in the northeast,” Bergantino said.

While 2023 was wet which led to increased growth of vegetation, the dryness of 2024, however, turned that vegetation into fuel, feeding those wildfires.  

SAY SOMETHING

When people have losses, it’s hard to know what to say, but Hoffman encourages people to “just say something.” 

“When someone is hurting emotionally or grieving, people often say ‘I’m sorry, and you’re in my prayers.’ But if somebody can say something that really resonates to you, and is specific to the person you lost or to you — which was part of our discussion today — makes a difference, because everyone is important to someone,” Hoffman said. “We’re not just ‘all educators’ or ‘all cattle people’ but if we can recognize someone as an individual, then each person can see that they’re not just a ‘big picture’ of a ‘group of people,’ she emphasized.

The two biggest suicide risk factors are a sense of being alone and sense of being a burden to others, Reznicek said.

“Anything we can do to allow people to feel connected and valued, helps create that safety net, and I think that’s the value of COMET,” Reznicek said, adding, “Everyone who joined us today can now go out in their communities and offer those trainings.”

“There were so many great topics discussed today but the biggest thing for me was the need for Farm Stress/Suicide Prevention in Wyoming,” said Donald McMoran, director of Washington State University Skagit County Extension and the principal investigator of the Western Region Agricultural Stress Assistance Partnership funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Stress Assistance Network.  The website is farmstress.us

There are additional important resources available to help producers with ag stress, and a relief program to help with financial stress, as well as assisting with the pure sadness of losing grazing land, or crops that aren’t producing because of a lack of precipitation.

“That will get them over the financial part of it, and any despair because there is always a way out,” Hoffman said. Each person attending shared the projects happening around the state that others could implement to help the ag community, in the future.                                                                                                                                      

“There are a lot of folks working to help turn around the stigma of suicide and ag stress. At our next roundtable in mid-December, I’d like to hear how we can partner together and get some of these ideas up and running,” said Lucy Pauley, with the Wyoming Department of Agriculture.

As Hoffman carefully put it, “It’s much better to have a conversation now, than to wait and be taking a casserole over to the family, later.”

RESOURCES:

COMET: https://farms.extension.wisc.edu/programs/comet-changing-our-mental-and-emotional-trajectory/

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 

AgriSafe: http://www.agrisafe.org