Several Arkansas state agencies should start a network for drought monitoring by Thanksgiving and create councils for responding, communicating and evaluating drought risks, according to a report released in June.
No council has met yet, said Edward Swaim, water resources division manager for the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission, which spearheaded the drought planning efforts.
About one-third of Arkansas’ counties are currently in severe drought, according to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s National Drought Mitigation Center.
That’s already hurt a lot of cattle farmers, said Vic Ford, associate director for egg natural resources at the University of Arkansas Extension Service.
Those farmers have been forced to feed cattle with hay that is often stored for use in winter months, he said.
When state officials first began work on a drought plan more than two years ago, Arkansas was one of only three states in the country that didn’t have one.
In coming up with a drought plan, the Natural Resources Commission used the guidance of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln National Drought Mitigation Center and the Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program at the University of Oklahoma.
They would oversee monitoring, risk evaluation, responses and public outreach.
For example, so far this year, drought conditions have lowered water levels in Washington County rivers, rendering them too low to float on, according to the Drought Mitigation Center’s Drought Impact Reporter.
Droughts can kill farmers’ crops, and herbicides that need rain to activate them don’t work.