Ag Pass Program for Commercial Cattle and Equestrian Operations

Good morning.  I’m pleased to share that an Ag Pass program was approved by the Board of Supervisors yesterday.  During a wildfire or other disaster, the Ag Pass allows commercial livestock or agriculture operators access to evacuated areas to care for crops and animals.  Here are a couple helpful slides.

It would be appreciated if you could share this email with commercial operators that would be interested in applying for a pass.   The deadline for phase 1 is October 1.

Phase 1 – commercial cattle and equestrian operations in the unincorporated area.

All other commercial agriculture and livestock operations in the unincorporated area will be in phase 2 next year in the spring/summer.   We will reach out to cities to determine their interest in opting in to the program.

Owners and managerial employees are eligible to get the pass.  The definition of a managerial employee is included on the webpage and application.

Click here to view the webpage that we’ve set up.

You can also find the application here.

The application is a fillable PDF, but you can also print it.  Questions and completed applications can be sent to Ag.Pass@sdcounty.ca.gov

Training:  Oct 13 and the tentative location will be the San Diego County Farm Bureau office in Escondido. The training will take four hours and it covers fire safety, fire behavior and weather, entrapment avoidance, evacuation, communications and incident command. An ID card will be issued after the training.

Applications need to be received by Oct 1 for the Oct 13 training.

Thanks so much.

Jeff Collins, Director
San Diego County Fire