Sheep Mowers Tackle Dry Grass in Yolo County
Across Yolo County, landowners and neighborhoods are facing a familiar challenge: how to manage grasses, weeds, brush, and ladder fuels that can quickly become dangerous wildfire fuels during California’s hot, dry summer and windy fall seasons. In Yolo County, non-native annual grasses are a dominant fuel type that poses a major threat to neighborhoods. These grasses are particularly dangerous because they dry out quickly and are easily ignitable and form continuous carpets of fuel. They resprout rapidly and early in the growing season to outcompete native, moisture retaining plants and continue the cycle of annual grasses.
To tackle these fine, easily ignitable grasses, prescribed grazing using sheep and goats offers a practical tool instead of or in conjunction with mowing, mechanical equipment, herbicides or prescribed fire. Thanks to a CAL FIRE Wildfire Prevention Grant, Yolo County RCD and Solano RCD implemented multiple prescribed grazing projects this summer in western Yolo County and northern Solano County, totaling 182 acres of targeted fuels reduction for rural communities in high fire areas.
What is prescribed grazing?
Prescribed grazing is the careful stocking of livestock to consume targeted vegetation while supporting broader land management goals. Co-benefits of prescribed grazing include:
- soil health
- native plant/habitat restoration
- carbon sequestration
- invasive weed management.
With prescribed grazing, animals are moved from one area to the next, usually using movable electric fences, to ensure they only consume the targeted vegetation. Depending on the season, livestock will consume barbed goatgrass and yellow starthistle, two notorious Yolo County weeds, to reduce invasive weed pressure on native understory.
Prescribed Herbivory Plans
Before grazing started, the RCD developed Prescribed Herbivory Plans (also known as Grazing Management Plans) for each project site that were reviewed and certified by Roxanne Foss, a Certified Rangeland Manager. Prescribed herbivory plans identify best management practices to avoid impacts to natural resources while achieving land management goals. The plans contain detailed site descriptions, assessments of biological resources, infrastructure, project goals, monitoring and adaptive management protocols, and forage calculations.
These first-of-its-kind plans for Yolo County RCD outline practices and protections for sensitive species such as elderberries, oaks, nesting birds, and other wildlife while reducing fuels to a level that wouldn’t cause erosion or devastate vegetation. Using CAL FIRE and Regional Forest and Fire Capacity Grant funding, the RCD expanded our capacity to write Prescribed Herbivory Plans, a service we can now offer to our community, when additional grant funding becomes available.
Prescribed Grazing Projects - Goats and Sheep in Action
With CAL FIRE Wildfire Prevention Grant (WPG) funding, Yolo County RCD partnered with Perennial Grazing and local landowners, to put prescribed grazing into action at two project areas: Winters and the Capay Valley.
Gray Pine Ridge Site - Winters
In west Winters, neighborhoods along Highway 128, between Lake Berryessa and the City of Winters, have seen repeated wildfires over the past decade. Roadsides like Highway 128 are common ignition sources across California, where vehicles or dragging chains can ignite dry roadside vegetation and quickly spread. Creating buffers of reduced vegetation between neighborhoods, roadsides, and the surrounding wildlands can reduce fire intensity, slow fire spread, and give firefighters safer, more manageable conditions.
That is the goal for the Gray Pine Ridge site, located along Positas Lane and Highway 128. The project site is owned by the Center for Land-Based Learning which was donated the property after its previous owners experienced two major wildfires on the property, which burned the residence down twice including the LNU 2020 Complex. The site resides in CAL FIRE’s State Responsibility Area in a very high fire hazard area (see CAL FIRE’s Fire Hazard Severity Zones, here). Additionally, Gray Pine Ridge was a prime location for prescribed grazing because its steep terrain makes it a difficult site to mow and dangerous for prescribed fire. Small ruminants can easily reach terrain that may be challenging for machinery or too treacherous for prescribed fire. Sheep and goats grazed 12-acres to reduce fine fuels and disrupt fuel continuity. Across Putah Creek in Solano County, a grazing project coordinated by Solano RCD using CAL FIRE WPG grant funding, grazed 76 acres across multiple properties.
Left: A “before” photo from the Gray Pine Ridge site showing the high fuel content and the steep slopes.
Right: An “after” photo of the same slope with less fuel content.
Community Grazing Project - Rumsey
In Capay Valley, the town of Rumsey is located at the northern end of Highway 16. Like Winters, Rumsey has seen severe wildfire history. Most recently the nearby Rumsey Fire in July 2026 burned 396 acres at the border of Colusa and Yolo counties.
The Capay Valley is within CAL FIRE’s State Responsibility Area and is ranked as very high to moderate fire hazard. Fires in this area of Yolo County are quickly driven by its rugged terrain, dense brush and wind patterns. To reduce that risk, multiple properties throughout Rumsey were selected, thanks to coordination by Christian Cain of Perennial Grazers. The selected properties had high fuel content close to structures.
The sites varied from more hilly terrain to old agricultural fields adjacent to homes. Grazing these sites was the most feasible vegetation treatment due to limitations in access and uneven terrain that would make conventional mechanical treatment, like mowing, impractical. In total, 94 acres were grazed in Rumsey!
Check out the video to the right, captured by Christian Cain, on Jul 4, 2026. The video shows Christian and local community members shepherding his flock over the Rumsey Bridge to a new property to continue working on the grazed fire break.
Left: A “before” photo from a grazing site in Rumsey showing the high fuel content.
Right: An “after” photo of the same area with less fuel content.
Community Grazing Cooperatives - A Long Term Solution
A downfall of all fine grasslands fuels management strategies is next season’s inevitable regrowth. With prescribed grazing in particular, a challenge can be the cost per acre. To tackle both issues, neighborhoods are turning to community grazing cooperatives. By partnering to share livestock, equipment, and grazing schedules, neighbors can make prescribed grazing more efficient and cost-effective while addressing invasive vegetation, reducing wildfire fuels, and improving habitat across a broader neighborhood footprint.
Establishing shared herds or cooperative grazing arrangements can also provide a practical long-term maintenance strategy, empowering neighborhoods to continue managing vegetation after initial grazing work is complete and building a lasting culture of collaborative land stewardship. The RCD offers technical assistance to support grazing cooperatives in the high fire areas of Yolo County. To learn more, reach out to Tanya Meyer, Fire Resilience Program Manager, at meyer@yolorcd.org or call (530) 661-1688 ext 2.
Prescribed Grazing Backed by Research
Targeted, high-intensity short rotation grazing, timed to occur after the peak growing period of annual grasses reduces the overall biomass and thatch. Research shows that heavy thatch of annual non-native grasses suppresses the growth of more desirable native grass and flower species. Additionally, short duration grazing mimics native grazers, like elk, which co-evolved with native grasslands for centuries.
A recent article published in California Agriculture found that recently grazed grasslands had a greater probability of stopping a fire from reaching high flame lengths (above 33 feet) – an important threshold for fire behavior and firefighter safety.
Check out our Prescribed Grazing Video
To see prescribed grazing in action and learn more about how this tool is being used locally, check out our new video developed right here in Yolo County.
Funding for this prescribed grazing video was provided by a grant from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection as part of the California Climate Investments Program, through the California Fire Safe Council.
