{"id":4313,"date":"2023-03-30T17:48:53","date_gmt":"2023-03-31T00:48:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/?p=4313"},"modified":"2024-05-21T18:08:50","modified_gmt":"2024-05-22T01:08:50","slug":"santa-barbaras-state-senator-introduces-bill-to-expand-prescribed-grazing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/2023\/03\/30\/santa-barbaras-state-senator-introduces-bill-to-expand-prescribed-grazing\/","title":{"rendered":"Santa Barbara\u2019s State Senator Introduces Bill to Expand Prescribed Grazing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monique Lim\u00f3n\u2019s Senate Bill 675 Would Integrate Livestock Grazing into California\u2019s Existing Wildfire Prevention Programs<\/strong><\/p>\n

Source of this article, the Santa Barbara Independent, March 30, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Santa Barbara is no stranger to prescribed wildfire prevention. For years, the county has used prescribed burning and chipping to clear away the fine, dry brush that acts as fuel for wildfires. However, in the face of the global climate crisis, a newer approach to wildfire mitigation is attracting the attention of state and local officials.<\/p>\n

Prescribed grazing \u2014 using livestock such as goats, sheep, and cattle to mow down unwanted vegetation \u2014 is argued to be the more \u201cnatural\u201d and \u201cclimate-smart\u201d method among the tools used to address California\u2019s wildfire crisis.<\/p>\n

Last month, State Senator Monique Lim\u00f3n of Santa Barbara introduced Senate Bill 675 to expand support of statewide prescribed grazing and integrate the method into California\u2019s existing wildfire resilience programs and strategies. The bill, sponsored by the California Climate & Agriculture Network, was developed in collaboration with the Community Environmental Council (CEC) and other partners across the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the unprecedented weather episodes we have seen since the beginning of the year, firefighters and emergency personnel deserve every tool necessary to help them protect our communities,\u201d Lim\u00f3n said.<\/p>\n

Prescribed grazing\u2019s success at preventing the spread of wildfires, alongside its various ecological benefits for native bird and plant species, have been demonstrated through Channel Islands Restoration\u2019s ongoing sheep-grazing program at the San Marcos Foothills.<\/p>\n

Molly Taylor, CEC\u2019s Climate-Smart Agriculture Program manager, said, \u201cWe see it as a valuable tool in that toolbox that has specific applications and benefits that the other two tools don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other two tools \u2014 prescribed burning and mastication \u2014 have side effects, Taylor said. Burning, which Indigenous Californians used to control vegetation and improve or alter habitats, can potentially pose risks to nearby infrastructure, and produces smoke that can drift to nearby communities. Mastication, or chipping, typically involves the use of heavy machinery to \u201cchew up\u201d dry vegetation overgrowth, which can be noisy and generates air pollutants.<\/p>\n

Grazing, in contrast, is more favorable for use near population centers, can be applied with more precision, has the potential to repair carbon and water cycles, and emits fewer greenhouse gases. \u201cIt has the ability to actually have ecological benefits,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n

CEC Climate Resilience Director Em Johnson said CEC and their partners are working to promote grazing as a tool that can help decrease wildfire risk while simultaneously building climate resilience.<\/p>\n

Millions of dollars have gone into removing the brush that nourishes catastrophic wildfires in Santa Barbara County, including prescribed burns such as the ones the U.S. Forest Service have been conducting since December. The final burns were near Figueroa Mountain and in other Los Padres Forest locations.<\/p>\n

But while the burning season has reached its end, work for two Fire Prevention Grants received by the Santa Barbara County Fire Safe Council in December 2022 is just beginning. The two multimillion-dollar grants for regional community chipping and prescribed grazing will run until March 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoving forward, you\u2019ll be seeing increased prescribed grazing along the front country in the Gaviota Coast,\u201d according to Taylor, which will be funded by the CalFire Fire Prevention Grant.<\/p>\n

Johnson added that the upcoming bill has the potential to strengthen partnerships between state agencies and rangeland ecology, fire, and prescribed grazing experts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that it\u2019s really interesting to be working both with the prescribed grazing element as well as prescribed burning, as we are supporting this holistic, systemic adaptation measures across our Central Coast region,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monique Lim\u00f3n\u2019s Senate Bill 675 Would Integrate Livestock Grazing into California\u2019s Existing Wildfire Prevention Programs Source of this article, the Santa Barbara Independent, March 30, 2023 Santa Barbara is no stranger to prescribed wildfire prevention. For years, the county has used prescribed burning and chipping to clear away the fine, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,7,23,64,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-california","category-environment","category-fire-hazard","category-santa-barbara-county","category-wildfire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4313"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4326,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4313\/revisions\/4326"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venturacountytrails.org\/WP\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}