California Cattle Council pushes grazing as wildfire prevention method

The California Cattle Council is promoting grazing as one way to prevent wildfires in the state. It’s part of a campaign, called CalResilient, launched by the association to raise awareness of how grazing and other strategies like prescribed burns can keep California “wildfire-resilient.”

Last year was California’s worst wildfire season on record. According to The Guardian, fires in 2020 killed 31 people, destroyed or damaged more than 10,000 buildings and burned 4.1 million acres.

Research has shown that expanded cattle grazing can help reduce fine fuels in forests and the underbrush that feed wildfires.

“We need to communicate to people that this is not a cattle or rancher issue,” California Cattle Council Chair David Daley told Drovers. “It’s a California issue. If we don’t change policy, people are going to lose their lives and their homes.”