Prescribed Grazing on Gray Pine Ridge - Winters, CA

Prescribed Grazing on Gray Pine Ridge - Winters, CA

The Yolo County Resource Conservation District is implementing a prescribed grazing project on 17 acres of private property along Highway 128 in partnership with a professional contract grazer. The RCD has developed a Prescribed Grazing Plan that will be certified by a Certified Rangeland Manager. The plan outlines stocking rate, timing and duration, and rotation for sustainable and effective prescribed grazing. The site was selected for its location on a high fire return site between Bobcat Ranch and the Positas Road community in unincorporated West Winters, a high fire hazard area, also along a roadway that is a potential ignition point in Yolo County. This site has burned twice since 2015, including in the 2020 LNU Lightning Complex. The primary goal for the prescribed grazing project is fuels reduction and management and is part of a series of roadside vegetation reduction projects and community wildfire buffers throughout the west Winters and Capay Valley areas to protect Yolo County from catastrophic wildfire. The prescribed grazing project will consist of goats and sheep that will be rotationally grazed to consume fine fuels like dry grasses. Prescribed grazing disrupts fuel continuity that allows fire to spread rapidly. Prescribed grazing was the chosen method for this site due to the site's steep terrain, making sheep and goats ideal to traverse the terrain and consume fuels. Prescribed grazing in late spring can also control yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis), which is also found on-site and is a noxious invasive weed that outcompetes native vegetation. Grazing will be done when soils are dry and firm to avoid erosion and impacts to the native understory. In subsequent years, maintenance at the site may occur. Overgrown vegetation adjacent to the small community along Positas Road poses a risk to the region, including the town of Winters and the larger western Yolo County region. Reducing fuels in project footprint in this buffer will reduce the likelihood of catastrophic wildfire. Biological and botanical monitoring will be conducted by Yolo County Resource Conservation District. Biological management tools can benefit ecosystems by reducing fuel loads, managing brush, sequestering carbon, and improving soil health. Fuels reduction reduces the likelihood of catastrophic wildfires, maintaining and restoring healthy ecosystems, and protecting human communities. Low-impact prescribed grazing benefits native plants by reducing competition from invasive species and promoting native perennial plant growth. A Qualified Biologist with experience in conducting planning-level and species-specific surveys in the area conducted a biological reconnaissance survey at the project site. Based on the results of the biological survey, the project has been designed so it will not cause significant adverse impact to special status species with likelihood to occur near the project site, including fencing off blue elderberry shrubs (Sambucus mexicana) to restrict animals from grazing on the plant, which is host for the protected Valley elderberry longhorn beetle (Desmocerus ca/ifornicus dimorphus). Botanical and biological surveys will occur a week before goats and sheep arrive on-site to confirm no special status species will be impacted by grazing. Work may occur during nesting bird season. If work commences during nesting bird season (February 1st to September 15th) the project area will be surveyed for nesting birds by a qualified biologist, no more than one week before operations. If nesting birds are located, the RCD will develop measures that avoid impacts and are consistent with the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

unincorporated area outside of Winters, CA, Winters

Yolo

Unincorporated

Yolo