The jump in the costs of insurance linked to wildfires isn’t only impacting homeowners in our region. Farmers and ranchers are also feeling the pinch.
Wyoming state representative Jeremy Haroldson (R-Wheatland) said fire is often knocking on farmers’ and ranchers’ backdoors.
“We're talking thousands of acres,” Haroldson said. “Once you get done with fuels management, you go back to where you started, do it again.”
But what if mitigating wildfire risks helped lower their insurance costs? That’s the question western states have been asking as homeowners insurance premiums skyrocket. And now Haroldson is expanding the conversation to ranchers and farmers.
For instance, he said landowners could get their “red cards” and get qualified to help fight wildland fires if that means lower costs.
“When people do fuel management, forest fire likelihood is lower,” Haroldson said. “Now I just think that we need to get insurance companies onboard.”
At a recent legislative committee meeting, a representative from an insurance trade group said this could happen, depending on if mitigation work actually reduces risk.
“There are situations where comprehensive mitigation can really have a dramatic reduction in risk,” said Ethan Aumann with the American Property Casualty Insurance Association. “And so there are possibilities that taking those types of steps will have a favorable impact on insurability and could impact rates.”
But he said, ultimately, those decisions are up to individual insurers.
In Idaho, many rural landowners have trained to defend their forests and grasslands though Rangeland Fire Protection Associations, but several organization leaders said this hasn’t helped lower premiums, potentially because they aren’t trained to defend structures.
Colorado recently passed a law requiring insurers to factor in mitigation efforts in home insurance prices, not the bundled farm and ranch insurance. That’ll go into effect next summer, and it’s unclear if it’ll be enough to drive down rates.
In Wyoming, Haroldson said, for now, he’s focused on having conversations with insurers and other stakeholders, rather than proposing legislation.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Northern Colorado, KANW in New Mexico, Colorado Public Radio, KJZZ in Arizona and NPR, with additional support from affiliate newsrooms across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Eric and Wendy Schmidt.
