Goats to graze along Carson City's Clear Creek watershed in fire prevention partnership
Submitted by Jeff Munson on Tue, 09/15/2020 - 11:05am
NV Energy and Nevada Division of Forestry have partnered to reduce the risk of wildfire in Carson City in the Clear Creek watershed through targeted goat grazing. More than 300 goats from High Desert Graziers in Smith Valley, NV, will be grazing on over 100 acres of private property off of Highway 50 through September and October of 2020 in an extreme wildfire risk area.
Targeted grazing mitigates wildfire risk by removing flammable vegetation, thus reducing the amount of fuels available to burn during a wildfire, and accomplishes the objective in a sustainable manner. This type of treatment also reduces ignition risk as compared to the use of heavy equipment to complete vegetation management during fire season.
Goats graze on native grasses and shrubs including sagebrush, bitterbrush (the goat’s favorite) and manzanita, as well as non-native grasses and weeds such as cheatgass. Cheatgrass, a non-native grass introduced from Asia, is easily ignited and can carry fire into rangelands and forests, contributing to rapid spread of wildfires.
While sheep have been used in Carson City and Reno for years to graze on cheatgrass, once the cheatgrass has dried, it is unpalatable to sheep. Goats will eat dry cheatgrass, along with other weeds, and native shrubs to reduce even more of the easily ignitable fuels on the landscape. The goats being used in this project are Spanish Goats and are between the ages of one and three years old. This type of Spanish goat, from the Kensing lineage, were bred to consume all types of vegetation in open and varied terrain. As such, this type of grazing has no known negative impacts on the goats.
“Targeted grazing is an ecologically beneficial treatment on the landscape to reduce the impacts of wildfires and prevent the loss of homes and other critical infrastructure,” said Anna Higgins, a forester with Nevada Division of Forestry.
“This is just one of the many wildfire mitigation efforts that NV Energy is using across its service territory to prevent wildfires, and is part of NV Energy’s overall Natural Disaster Protection Plan,” said Mark Regan, Wildfire Mitigation Specialist for NV Energy. “These goats will clear the vegetation under and around our power lines in rugged terrain that would be challenging for crews to navigate, and eliminates the need for crews to use machinery to clear brush during wildfire season. This is believed this is the first use of goats for wildfire mitigation by an electric utility in Nevada.”
This project is made possible by funding assistance from Senate Bill 508, a bill that makes allocations to the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources for wildfire prevention, restoration and long-term planning.
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