AUBURN, Calif. - The Bureau of Reclamation’s California-Great Basin Region is working with the Auburn Area Recreation and Park District to help reduce the threat of potential wildfire through a goat grazing project. The Auburn Area Recreation and Park District Grazing Project seeks to decrease fuel (vegetation) loads on lands near Maidu Drive where homes meet the forest. The goal is to thin lower vegetation layers and lessen the chance for wildfire to spread into the larger growths of shrubs and trees.
Contracted goat herds will graze overgrown vegetation within temporary fences and carefully monitored via controllers and herding dogs.
The grazing project site is within the loop of Maidu Drive behind the operations buildings used by Placer County Water Agency and uphill from Shirland Canal. This project is within the existing Shaded Fuel Break footprint and treated by the California Conservation Corps crews. The Auburn Shaded Fuel Break Project is a 10-year collaboration between Reclamation, California State Parks and CalFire.
The Auburn Shaded Fuel Break footprint uses a common fuels-reduction treatment; it removes some of the larger woody shrubs and smaller trees that often cause wildfire to “crown" and spread quickly from treetop to treetop through the woodland canopy. Shaded fuel breaks discourage further woody fuel growth.
Grazing is planned for spring 2020 and ends by summer 2020 or when vegetation management goals have been reached. The land is part of about 77 acres managed under a long-term partnership between Reclamation and ARD within and near Auburn. No significant changes in recreational trail or land use are expected to occur during the grazing.
The public is welcome to view the goats grazing while incorporating social distancing, and if recreation access rules for ARD park lands are followed.
Learn more about this project by visiting: https://www.usbr.gov/mp/nepa/nepa_project_details.php?Project_ID=42044.
Contact Emmett Cartier with questions at 916-537-7082 (TTY 800-877-8339) or ecartier@usbr.gov.
Source: Bureau of Reclamation
