WyCHEx shares resources for monitoring & adapting to drought at interactive presentations around the state. So far, we've shared this presentation at the:
South Dakota Forest Management Workshop (March 2026)
Uinta County Weed & Pest (February 2026)
High Plains Organic Conference (February 2026)
This interactive workshop has participants collect soil from their home or surroundings, then walks them through measurements of simple soil properties (pH, nitrate, texture, and organic matter) and discusses how these properties relate to soil function and drought resilience. The workshop (developed by WyCHEx) has been published to WyoScholar and is available for anyone to use. Materials can be found here.
To date, WyCHEx has given variations of this workshop at the:
Wyoming Food Coalition Conference (November 2025)
Master Gardeners Workshop (February 2026)
Common Outdoor Ground Outdoor School Day (May 2025 and October 2025)
4H Showcase Showdown (June 2025)
Native American Summer Institute (June 2025)
WyCHEx presented an all-ages activitiy at the Albany County and Laramie County Ag & Arts Tours, organized by University of Wyoming Extension. Participants looked up the typical soil profile of their home, farm, or ranch through SoilWeb (https://casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/gmap/), discussed it, then used soil-based watercolor paints from The Art of Soil (https://theartofsoil.com/) to paint bookmarks of their soil profile.
We travel to agricultural meet-ups and events around the state to share drought adaptation and soil health resources with producers, technical service providers, and other agricultural professionals, as well as listen to needs and ideas around drought adaptation to help inform our work.
To date, we have hosted booths at the:
Southwest Wyoming Ag Day (January 2026)
Wyoming Conservation Districts Annual Convention (November 2025)
Wyoming Food Coalition Conference (November 2025)
Wyoming State Fair (August 2025)
Rocky Mountain Farmers Union annual picnic (May 2025)
Sheridan Research & Extension Center Field Day (July 2025)
SAREC Lingle Research & Extension Center Field Day (August 2025)
Riverton Ag Water Symposium (May 2025)
To date, WyCHEx has given talks about our work and about drought adaptation resources at the:
Fremont County Farm & Ranch Days
High Plains Organic Conference
Wyoming Conservation Districts Annual Convention Talk: Climate & Agriculture in Wyoming : Rancher Perceptions, Soil health, and Adaptation
Wyoming Food Coalition Speaker Series
Wyoming Naturialist Program Continuing Education Speaker Series
NOAA NIDIS Missouri River Baisn Drought Early Warning System Webinar (featured presenter)
WyCHEx paired with The Land Institute to host an educational booth at the Laramie Farmers Market sharing grains from local research groups or coops working to help farmers adapt to drought. We talked with market-goers about how buying drought-tolerant, alternative grains can create local markets and help Wyoming farms diversify and deal with drought and other climate threats, and shared recipes and grains at bulk prices. We sourced rye from the Rye Resurgence Project, chickpeas and lentils from Timeless Seeds, emmer from the Ancient Grains Project, and Kernza from the Land Institute. We are at the farmers market once a month from June - September.
WyCHEx organized a training to help Wyoming FSA offices become volunteer observers for the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow network, which uses community-sourced precipitation data to improve drought monitoring and precipitation mapping, particularly in rural areas. CoCoRaHS data is used by the US Drought Monitor, National Weather Service, Wyoming Climate Office, insurance agencies, and others. 38 FSA members attended the webinar, and 12 offices around Wyoming signed up to receive free CoCoRaHS rain gauges from WyCHEx.