Grazing and Wildfires Pt 2
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson. Bills like the “Operational Flexibility Grazing Management Act” and the “Ranching Without Red Tape Act” are a pair of bills Western ranchers and lawmakers are pushing to help battle wildfires.
California Congressman Doug LaMalfa has stressed that increasing livestock grazing will reduce the "fine fuels" that make fires burn hotter, faster, and much more dangerously …
LaMALFA … “When fuels burn uncontrolled and so quickly from all the unmanaged fuels and underbrush, there’s a big part of the equation that leads to huge mega-fires that destroy forests, towns, and people’s lives.”
LaMalfa adds that using livestock for fire fuel management is a common-sense approach …
LaMALFA … “Cattle grazing on public lands provides valuable ecosystem benefits like food and water production, disease regulation, nutrient cycling, and crop pollination. They’ve been found time and again to be helpful in the cycling of the land, not the harm that is frequently over-emphasized or even made up. An important tool that unfortunately isn’t being utilized enough. As those of us here know, the West continues to face a wildfire and of course health crisis.”
LaMalfa says cattle grazing is an important tool that unfortunately isn’t being utilized enough.
Many ranchers also say these efforts are a key to protecting Western landscapes and communities.
