Grazing for Fuels Reduction

» Highland Farms / Flying Mule Farm

Grazing for Fuels Reduction provides multiple benefits at the wildland/urban interface: defensible space, meat and dairy, and view-sheds. In the Sierra, these working landscapes also provide a buffer zone for wildlife between forests and communities. As such, livestock can be at subject to forest predators.

Rather than working against the forest or its natural predators, ranchers are finding ways to work with the forest and its wildlife to both improve the quality of grazing lands within their fences, and to restore the quality of the forest ecosystem to keep predation outside their fences.

The Conservation Security Program (CSP) provides financial assistance to farmers and ranchers in the form of incentive or enhancement payments, or cost share; technical assistance to conserve and enhance natural resources on working agricultural lands and forested land that is an incidental part of an agricultural operation.

See the University of California Cooperative Extension's new UCCELR Livestock and Natural Resources toolkit for:

• the Integrated Hardwood Range Management Program

• the UCCE Mountain Region homepage

• Cyber-Sierra's Conservation District Resource Center