A bipartisan bill in Congress coauthored by Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif., would direct the U.S. Forest Service to expand the use of targeted animal grazing as a fuels management tool to reduce wildfire risk.
LaMalfa, a senior Republican on the House Agriculture Committee, teamed with Rep. Gabe Vasquez, D-N.M., in offering legislation LaMalfa characterizes as common sense.
“It’s an important tool that unfortunately isn’t being utilized enough,” said LaMalfa, chairman of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Forestry. “In California, we’ve seen firsthand what happens when we can’t use every authority available to prevent wildfires,”
Agencies are now limited in the scope of tools they can consider, and often the post-fire teams bear the burden of suggesting “creative” tools like livestock grazing for fuels reduction as pilot programs.
While targeted grazing is a powerful tool to combat wildfires, it can often be a difficult option because any change to a federal grazing permit requires environmental assessments that take up to 10 years to complete, LaMalfa’s office contends.
Additionally, current federal regulations make it nearly impossible for ranchers with federal lands grazing permits to use overgrown fields and keep the invasive and highly flammable cheatgrass at bay after a fire, only increasing the likelihood of another fire later.
“This bill will help cut through red tape and make it easier to use livestock grazing proactively to prevent wildfires and keep New Mexicans safe,” said Vasquez, a fellow member of the House Agriculture Committee’s Forestry Subcommittee.
LaMalfa, a rice farmer from Richvale, Calif., represents California’s northern interior counties.