La Cañada Flintridge is planning to use animals to prevent wildfires in part of the mountainside community, city officials said on Tuesday, Aug. 5.
With funding from Cal Fire’s Wildfire Prevention Grant Program, the city is “reintroducing one of nature’s oldest vegetation management tools: grazing animals.”
The hungry goats and sheep will head up an effort to reduce wildfire risk across a nearly 60-acre expanse of city-owned land in the Gould Canyon area.
“As a key component of the city’s broader wildfire mitigation strategy, this project involves the use of goats and sheep to manage vegetation in the Wildland Urban Interface, the area where homes meet undeveloped, brush-heavy terrain,” according to a city statement. “Grazing provides a low-impact, environmentally responsible method of reducing fuel loads, creating defensible space and supporting long-term community safety.”
The city is working with the Los Angeles County Fire Department on its wildfire prevention efforts.
The initiative includes a dedicated web page — LCF.ca.gov/Wildfire-Prevention — that aims to raise fire prevention awareness. The site includes home hardening tips and news about upcoming events.
Cal Fire’s Wildfire Prevention Grants Program and its broader Wildfire Prevention Project are funded in part by a statewide initiative called California Climate Investments, which uses so-called “carbon cap-and-trade money” to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.