On October 28, CalCAN and Good Shepherds co-hosted a prescribed grazing tour in Del Sur, San Diego for Senator Catherine Blakespear, local fire officials, urban and regional planners, conservationists, and community members. Like many housing developments built in the wildland urban interface (WUI) in California, Del Sur has a high fire risk due to its geography and proximity to open spaces. Power lines bisect the adjacent grasslands and a dry canyon runs right through the development. Local residents are no strangers to fire; many evacuated during the 2003 Creek Fire and the 2007 Witch Fire, some of the largest and most destructive wildfires in the history of San Diego County. In recent years, the homeowners’ association has partnered with the prescribed grazing outfit Good Shepherds to graze vegetation in the area to reduce wildfire risk and improve ecosystem health and fire resiliency. This project demonstrates how prescribed grazing can an effective, community-supported strategy for reducing wildfire risk in high-hazard landscapes.
Benefits of Prescribed Grazing
Matthew Sablove, the founder of Good Shepherds Regenerative Land Management, led participants to the canyon that runs through Del Sur, where he pointed out how the subtle terracing
created by the mixed herd of 400 sheep and goats improved water absorption and reduced erosion. Matthew discussed how ruminants increase soil health and water-holding capacity by returning organic matter to the soil. He shared how California native plants coevolved with large herbivores such as elk and bison, and how many native plant species thrive upon the nutrient cycling and appropriate level of ecological disturbance provided by herbivory. Matthew pointed to overgrown ungrazed grassland beyond the electric fence line.
“See all of that dry grass? Someone’s got to eat it, and it’s either ruminants or fire.” – Matthew Savlove, Good Shepherds Regenerative Land Management
A Cost-Effective Solution with Community Impact
Chad Ross, the chair of the Del Sur homeowners association, said that the HOA originally opted for prescribed grazing because it cost less than having hand crews manually remove brush. He told the group, “It’s not cheap, but the juice is worth the squeeze.” Through years of partnership with Good Shepherds, the HOA has seen many benefits of prescribed grazing and has increased the acreage that they graze. They currently graze beyond the areas they are legally responsible for managing because “fire doesn’t stop at a property line, and it’s the right thing to do.”
Angelica, a grazier with Good Shepherds, noted that seeing the animals grazing brings a sense of peace and safety to residents. General managers from the neighboring Santa Luz community shared how Good Shepherds’ community engagement and education around wildfire risk reduction encouraged homeowners to manage the defensible space around their own properties: “People are losing their fire insurance; it’s a big deal.”
Questions from Senator Blakespear
Senator Blakespear, whose district borders the Del Sur neighborhood, chairs the state’s Environmental Quality Committee and serves on the budget subcommittee overseeing wildfire investments, had a number of practical questions for Good Shepherds, like:
- “How often do you have to move the fences?”
- “How do you bring water out?”
- “How do you transport the herd?”
- “Isn’t that a lot of work?”
Her questions spoke to some of the structural and labor challenges prescribed graziers often face. For example: many urban and suburban areas are not yet designed, zoned, or permitted to be easily grazed; graziers often have to rely on mobile fencing and watering systems; and prescribed grazing with sheep and goats in urban and suburban areas requires skilled herders to be on-site and constantly moving fences and monitoring herds.
Policy Progress: Making Grazing More Accessible
Local policymakers are starting to address some of these challenges as climate change drives increasingly frequent and destructive wildfires. In May 2025, the San Diego Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a measure intended to exempt sustainable cattle grazing from a grading and clearing ordinance and expand grazing on county-owned land. “‘At one time, such requirements may have been appropriate, particularly to address the impacts of poorly managed grazing practices on the local ecosystems,’ said Supervisor Jim Desmond at the Board of Supervisors meeting. ‘However, over the past several decades, ranchers have made significant advances in sustainable land management, and many rotate grazing and maintain limited herd sizes,’ which allows for grazing areas to recover, resulting in stronger and more resilient landscapes, he added.”
At the tour in Del Sur, Joel Kramer, the Director of Agricultural Programs at the Greater San Diego Resource Conservation District, shared how recent state policy is advancing prescribed grazing as a tool for fire prevention and land management.
Joel serves on the state’s Range Management Advisory Committee (RMAC), which recently released Draft Local and Regional Grazing Guidance as part of the implementation of Senate Bill 675 (Limón), a bill CalCAN sponsored in 2024. As part of SB 675 implementation, members of the RMAC and other rangeland and livestock experts also submitted a brief to the State Wildfire Task Force earlier this year with strategies and recommendations to scale up prescribed grazing for wildfire resilience. Many of the recommendations in these documents echo Matthew’s vision for creating “graze-ready” communities by facilitating easeful mobility for ruminants across neighboring parcels with infrastructure like fencing and distributed water hookups designed with grazing in mind.
Public Comment Opportunity
If you’re interested in providing public comment on the RMAC’s Draft Local and Regional Grazing Guidance, you can find instructions in this Public Comment page. The deadline is November 7.
Acknowledgments
We want to thank Matthew, Angelica, Joel, Senator Blakespear, Deborah, the Del Sur HOA, and the many other local officials and residents who participated in the tour for making it a valuable, informative, and inspiring event. We also thank the Resources Legacy Fund for their financial support for our series of educational tours on prescribed grazing and wildfire resilience.
