(BLACK FOREST, Colo.) — An El Paso County family has dozens of animals eating up wildfire fuel, but it’s not quite what you think. You’ve probably heard of goats munching on weeds, but William Vogl is using sheep, which he said do much more than help protect land from fires.
“They can take care of weed mitigation, vegetation management, mowing, as well as the fire fuel reduction,” said Vogl, owner of Vogl Homestead Farm in Black Forest.
Vogl brings the flock around to help fortify soil and reduce dangerous fire fuel. He said his primary flock has 140 sheep, including the adults and lambs. “We also have another group, which is all of our ram lambs and our breeding ram, which is what we call the ‘bachelor group,’ and it’s about 30 sheep right now. Then we have a small group that we actually have just on a small property that’s doing some stuff, that’s about 14 sheep. So in total, we’re running close to 180 sheep,” Vogl added…