Albany, Laramie County Farmers Eligible For Disaster Aid Due To Fires

Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon announced on Wednesday that Albany County is one nine counties in Wyoming that has received a U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretarial Disaster Designation due to damage from wildfires.

The other eight are Goshen, Platte, Converse, Hot Springs, Sheridan, Crook,  Johnson and Weston counties. These counties are classified as primary natural disaster areas. Another nine counties, including Laramie County are classified as contiguous disaster areas. The other contiguous counties in Wyoming are Big Horn, Fremont, Niobrara, Campbell, Park, Carbon, Natrona and Washakie.

Farmers in both primary and contiguous counties are elgible for federal disaster aid loan programs.

You can read the letter from Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack here.

What Does The Desgination Mean?

In his letter, Vilsack wrote ''A Secretarial disaster designation makes farm operators in primary counties and those counties contiguous to such primary counties eligible to be considered for Farm Service Agency (FSA) emergency loan assistance, provided eligibility requirements are met. Farmers in eligible counties have 8 months from the date of a Secretarial disaster declaration to apply for emergency loans. FSA considers each emergency loan application on its own merits, taking into account the extent of production losses on the farm and the security and repayment ability of the operator.''

In his news release announcing the desgination, Gordon said over 810,000 acres in Wyoming have been torched by wildfires, much of it on private property.

The most recent weather forecast for the state is offering some hope for relief, with cooler temperatures and rain or snow being predicted across the state. That follows an unusual late-season stretch of hot, dry weather in Wyoming, often combining with windy coinditions to increase the fire danger.