Services
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Fire Fuel Management
Prescribed grazing services can help protect communities from wildfires in several ways. Grazing removes “fine fuels” like dried grasses and small twigs which ignite rapidly and increase the intensity and speed of wildfires. Fire breaks can be created which can stop or slow wildfire and serve as a control line from which suppression operations can be conducted. Goats are particularly well-suited to removing “ladder fuels” like large shrubs, saplings and bark flakes. These fuels allow fire to jump from the ground into trees where they then disperse flying embers that ignite more fires.
Grazing can also be used alongside prescribed or cultural fire by either managing fine fuels before a burn, resulting in slower and cooler fires that are easier to control, or after burning to speed plant succession or manage colonization by invasive species. The targeted application of ruminents can mimic effects of lost wildlife communities on landscapes while careful health controls can ensure low risk to endangered grazing populations.
Invasive Species and Weed Control
Invasive plants can cause significant economic, social, cultural and environmental damage by spreading rapidly, outcompeting local species, altering biological communities, reducing biodiversity and disrupting proper ecosystem functions. Some are dangerous to human or animal health and some contribute to wildfire risk. A management plan that includes prescribed grazing can manage seed banks, open up monocultures to competition from more desireable plants or eradicate an invasion entirely over time. Using biological methods can gently tip ecological balance without use of herbicides or carbon-intensive machinery.
Weed control that relies on chemical or mechanical methods can be inappropriate in sensitive riparian areas or just indesirable due to pollution, impacts on pollinators or delicate ecology. Grazing will remove weeds while introducing organic matter and beneficial microbial communities to soil, improving soil health and shifting plant succession over time.
Ecological Restoration
Herbivory is a key ecosystem process that reduces biomass and density of plant materials, transfers nutrients to the soil and affects habitat and resource conditions for other organisms. Human development has dramatically impacted wild herbivores, their movements and their roles in ecological niches. Prescribed grazing reintroduces animal impacts, improving habitat and biodiversity and introducing organic matter and microbial life to soil. It supports the dynamic balance of ecosystems and their ability to heal damage.
Areas disturbed by mining activity in particular often require extensive interventions to build soil from waste rock or restore the lost ecosystems. Using the tool of grazing, we can work with your agrologist or environmental engineering group to shift imbalance in plant communities, restore lost soil and habitat. Prescribed grazing has proven to increase area biodiversity, assist in vegetation succession management and support the healing of disrupted water and nutrient cycles.
