Prescriptive Grazing for Fire Control

Ashley HansenUtah Department of Agriculture and FoodGrazing Improvement Program

Fires in Utah

We All Know the Story

Fire Prevention Efforts

Another Option??

Skull Valley- Tooele County

The Idea Identify “High Risk” areas and/or structures Use existing structures (roads, pipeline, fences) to plan

fire breaks that are approximately ½ mile wide Creating 10,000 acre “pastures” between fire breaks

Use temporary structures (Electric fence, temporary troughs, water trucks, supplement) to hold high densities of cattle to remove fine fuels.

Rehabilitate cheatgrass “pastures” between fire breaks using cattle

Reseeding of grazed areas with fire resistant seed types would be key, in some instances Plateau or other chemicals may be needed.

Skull Valley- Tooele County

The Idea Use current permitted animals to heavily graze firebreak

areas using electric fence, temporary water, supplement Some NEPA would be required because in most cases we

would be changing the timing of grazing from what the permit allows

Team to review range conditions BLM, GIP,vExtension, Ranchers,

Monitoring and control of livestock Permitted Rancher responsibility Full time herder may be required

Funding for fence, seed, and chemical would be available through GIP

A Study

Joel M. Diamond, USU 2009 PhD Dissertation Effects of Targeted Grazing and Prescribed Burining on Fire Behaviou

and Community Dynamics of a Cheatgrass Targeted grazing of large blocks and strips could be used as the

initial step in the revegetation of cheatgrass-dominated sites.

Timed grazing can alter the stable state of a cheatgrass community

High Intensity grazing can reduce seed bank densities

Integrated weed management practices such as herbicide and burning could be used with grazing

Study Cont. Cost Effectiveness The creation of fuel breaks with livestock grazing or

herbicides may be an effective way to not only protect remnant native vegetation but also prepare seed beds for revegetation. The economic impacts of these changes, in terms of fire suppression and rehabilitation are great, and thus, management techniques must be evaluated for their cost effectiveness

Conclusion

Create firebreaks using cattle to reduce fine fuels Creates barriers to better contain fires within a largescale

cheatgrass dominated area Utilize existing resources (cattle) to reduce cost of

implementing fire breaks and rehabilitation Rehabilitate individual “pastures” in phases using hearty/fire

resilient vegetation. Ultimately create fire resilient vegetation communities to

reduce cost of fire containment in areas of frequent fire occurrence Use cattle as the primary tool in the restoration process

Questions