Last month, State Sen. Monique Limón (California Senate District 19) introduced Senate Bill 675 to enhance wildfire mitigation efforts by expanding support of statewide prescribed grazing.
On Wednesday, March 22, Limon will join the Community Environmental Council (CEC) and its partners for a community webinar that will dig deeper into this new legislation and how prescribed grazing can help Central Coast communities build climate resilience.
The free webinar, offered in English and Spanish, runs 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Hosted by CEC’s Climate-Smart Agriculture program manager Molly Taylor, presenters include representatives from Cuyama Lamb, Channel Islands Restoration, and the California Climate & Agriculture Network (CalCAN).
Presenters will discuss the importance of prescribed grazing as an ecological and fire resilience tool – and how SB 675 will ensure that prescribed grazing is better integrated into existing statewide wildfire resilience programs and strategies.
Wildfires in California have substantially increased in frequency and intensity over the last few decades, fueled by drought and the overgrowth of fine, dry brush.
Although existing vegetation management practices such as controlled burns and mechanical thinning are effective, prescribed grazing by livestock such as goats, sheep and cattle offers a more climate-smart option that can be applied with more precision, has the potential to repair the carbon and water cycles, and emits fewer greenhouse gasses.
That’s why CEC’s Climate Resilience team is working to expand and scale prescribed grazing throughout the Central Coast region in collaboration with several local partners.
“We are extremely grateful to Senator Limon for pushing SB 675 forward,” said Taylor. “If passed, this bill will make it easier to scale up this critical resilience tool that we and our partners have demonstrated as an effective, climate-smart approach to addressing California’s wildfire crisis.”
SB 675 would institutionalize support for prescribed grazing as a nature-based wildfire solution, integrating prescribed grazing into some of the state’s existing wildfire resilience programs and strategies by supporting outreach, education, infrastructure, and local, regional, and state wildfire resilience planning.
The bill also increases consultation between state agencies implementing wildfire resilience programs and rangeland ecology, fire, and prescribed grazing experts.
SB 675 is sponsored by the California Climate & Agriculture Network and was developed in close collaboration with CEC, Fibershed, local fire professionals, prescribed grazing practitioners, and rangeland ecologists across the state.
Strategies like this offer scalable, multi-benefit solutions to climate impacts. CEC has been developing and advocating for such practical solutions to environmental challenges for over half a century, stretching back to the organization’s founding.
Community members interested in learning more about prescribed grazing and how this climate-smart agricultural practice, along with other wildfire mitigation strategies, can be implemented in their region are encouraged to attend the interactive, online event.
To register, visit https://cec.pub/grazingpr.