Bianca Soares of Star Creek Land Stewards talks about their work grazing at Alameda Creek and other sites in the East Bay.
CalCAN recently hosted a prescribed grazing tour at Alameda Creek in Fremont in collaboration with Star Creek Land Stewards, the California Woolgrowers Association, Rangeland Conservation Science, and East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD). The tour showcased the critical role of prescribed grazing in reducing wildfire risk and stewardship of rangelands, which remains highly relevant as wildfire season intensifies.
Field staff from the offices of four East Bay legislators – Assemblymembers Lee, Ortega, Kalra, and Bonta – attended the tour. Alameda County staff attended along with rangeland conservation scientist Felix Ratcliff and EBRPD Fire Department staff.
Tailoring Prescribed Grazing Plans for Optimal Land Management
As 600 goats grazed along Alameda Creek, Bianca Soares of Star Creek Land Stewards explained how herd composition and size are selected for each project. Goats are well suited to taller brush and shrubs while sheep prefer lower grasses. Soares designs a grazing plan based on the vegetation characteristics, acreage, and project goals which might include fire fuel reduction or invasive species removal. Each grazing plan breaks the acreage into smaller sections and predicts how long the animals need to graze in that area – long enough to reduce the vegetation sufficiently but not so long as to overgraze. She is in constant coordination with the herder onsite who is responsible for moving the electric fencing and animals and ensuring the herd’s wellbeing. From April to October, Star Creek Land Stewards graze sheep and goats at over 100 sites across more than 2000 acres of the Bay Area.
East Bay Regional Park District’s Long History of Grazing
Alameda Creek runs along Quarry Lakes Recreation Area, which is part of the East Bay Regional Park District. With seventy-three parks spanning over 125,000 acres, EBRPD is the largest regional park district in the country. EBRPD has grazed for over 60 years and currently grazes sheep, goats, and cattle on over 86,000 acres of parkland.
“Grazing isn’t new,” reminds Andrée Soares, President of Star Creek Land Stewards and the California Woolgrowers Association. Native grasses coevolved with historic herbivores like bison, elk, and antelope that grazed Western grasslands for thousands of years. Indigenous Californians used cultural fires to steward ecosystems, ensuring habitat and forage for large herbivores that maintained grasslands while improving soil health, preventing catastrophic wildfires, and cultivating culturally important species.
Today, rangeland conservationists use grazing to manage invasive species, restore and maintain native plants and habitats for threatened and endangered species, sequester carbon, and mitigate wildfire risk. Our previous blog post on prescribed grazing practices provides further insights into how these efforts contribute to broader wildfire mitigation strategies.
The Role of Prescribed Grazing in Wildfire Prevention
In June 2022, the wind-driven Scenic Fire that ignited near the Carquinez shoreline was put out 100 feet from the town of Port Costa.
“The goat grazing we’d done in the area was critical for catching that fire,” said EBRPD Fire Captain Patrick McIntyre. “Once the fire moves into the goat grazed area, the [fire] activity greatly decreases.”
Multiple studies in California – e.g. Hulme-Foss (2023) and Ratcliff et al (2022) – have found that grazing reduces flame length, and rate of fire spread, which creates more manageable wildfire behavior that allows ground crews to fight and extinguish the fire.
Prescribed Grazing as a Cost-Effective Tool for Fuel Load Reduction
Fuels Reduction Coordinator Steven Keller explained how ruminants provide cost-effective fuel load reduction compared to hand crews and, crucially, how they can graze year-round. “During wildfire season, we can’t use mechanical fuel reduction tools due to ignition risk,” says Keller.
Grazing Tenants: First Responders in Wildfires
Local and long-standing grazing tenants are also valued by the Park District and local firefighters for their knowledge of the land and access routes.
“In 2020 when we had the CSU and Lightning Complex fires, our grazing tenants were first responders,” says Allison Rofe, Rangeland Specialist with EBRPD. “They’re first responders in fires because they know the ranch roads, they have to get their animals to safety, and they assist CalFIRE in accessing properties.”
Challenges and Legislation Supporting Prescribed Grazing
The increasing frequency and severity of wildfires in recent years have dramatically increased the demand for prescribed grazing in the Bay area and other fire-threatened communities across the state. However, challenges remain in scaling up prescribed grazing operations, including limited prescribed grazing infrastructure, cost-prohibitive regulatory costs and delays for state-funded grazing projects, and ongoing uncertainty caused by a misguided labor agency determination that threatens to shut down goat grazing operations.
SB 675 (Limón) – which is sponsored by CalCAN and supported by a diverse coalition of 55 climate, conservation, fire safety, and public health organizations – would integrate prescribed grazing into some of the state’s existing wildfire mitigation programs and plans while also developing guidance and best management practices to support the growing number of local entities interested in using prescribed grazing. SB 675 is awaiting its final floor vote in August before it heads to the Governor’s desk. See CalCAN’s SB 675 fact sheet for additional details on this legislation.
Community Support for Prescribed Grazing
The event also drew attention from local media, including a news article in the Tri-City Voice by journalist Jack Alcorn who attended the tour.
Brent Kelley, who works with the Alameda County Public Works Agency and manages the grazing contracts for Alameda County, noted goats pose less health and safety risk and are better received by the public than the alternatives of herbicides and noisy, gas-powered equipment. After just a few grazing seasons, Kelley says residents have come to love the goats – and expect them.
“I get calls – ‘Where are the goats?’” Star Creek Land Stewards and EBRPD get dozens of similar calls. “For folks that have lost their fire insurance,” says Andrée Soares, “these animals are their fire insurance.”
Stay tuned as we await the next steps in SB 675’s legislative progress. Subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on social media for the latest updates!
