Westmont has welcomed a herd of sheep to campus to eat non-native vegetation and reduce wildfire fuel in the barranca west of Voskuyl Library, adjacent to the dry Westmont Creek. Coordinated by Montecito Fire, the flock from Cuyama Lamb will consume the grasses before they dry out later this summer and have the potential to feed a wildfire.
“As we saw in the Thomas Fire and the Tea Fire, this canyon is notorious for funneling fire down into the community,” says Maeve Juarez, a wildland fire specialist for Montecito Fire. “We’re really sensitive to controlling the flashy fuels in this area, trying to prevent dangerous ember cast, when heavy winds carry embers downwind to a new area and ignite spot fires.”
“Fire risk assessors still identify this ravine as a high priority area for fire mitigation,” says Laura Drake Schultheis, Westmont assistant professor of biology, who has worked with ecology students to restore the property to a native oak woodland. “A big part of that mitigation includes containing exotic weeds that sprout up every year, and when we reduce those types of fuels, we help protect both Westmont and the surrounding communities from future fire risk.”
Schultheis says that Montecito Fire has been reducing flashy fuels, which ignite quickly and spread rapidly, through hand-pulling and weed-whacking in the past few years, but never with sheep. “Grazing provides a very effective and eco-friendly alternative to these methods with less noise and the added benefit that surrounding communities enjoy watching the sheep do their thing,” she says.
The herd, surrounded by a portable electric fence, will graze in the ravine for about three weeks. “It sounds kind of funny, but it’s based on palette preferences,” Juarez says. “We’ll use the first few days to gauge what they like eating and assess it from there.”…