Navigating the Proposal Process for Wildfire Fuels Treatment Using Prescribed Grazing

February 24th, 2023 9:00 - 11:45am

Link to California Rangeland Conservation Coalition Conference Recording

CAL FIRE and the State of California have continued to ramp up investments in resources for increasing fuel treatments to manage high fuel loads and reduce wildfire risk. Using livestock to treat fuels has significant potential for managing combustible vegetation. A variety of funding sources are available to support wildfire prevention projects and activities in and near fire threatened communities that focus on increasing the protection of people, structures, and communities. In this workshop, CAL FIRE, UC Extension advisors, and grazing managers offered general guidelines for developing applications for fuel reduction projects utilizing grazing through Request for Proposal (RFP) processes, and developing successful grazing agreements. Information required for major elements of the funding application process and important considerations that often require funding for wildfire fuel mitigation using prescribing grazing were discussed.

Trainers:

Stephanie Larson, PhD, CRM, County Director and Livestock Range Management Advisor, UCCE Sonoma and Marin Counties 

Dr. Stephanie Larson, Director, University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE), Sonoma County; is the County Director, Sonoma County, along with being the Livestock and Range Management Advisor. She addresses climate change, food production and ecological and economical management of working landscapes in Sonoma and Marin Counties. She has a BS and MS in Animal Science and a PhD in Rangeland Management. Dr. Larson assists local livestock producers to improve production and marketing of livestock, conducting research on wise stewardship of rangelands. Her program documents and integrates the ecosystem services provided by rangelands, highlighting the benefits of using prescribed grazing for vegetation management, habitat diversity, and increased forage production. She created Match.Graze, an online platform that pairs livestock grazers with landowners wanting to use grazing to achieve resources goals on their properties.

Her educational and research-based programs deliver opportunities for local agriculture producers, making their operations more sustainable and economically viable. She is a licensed certified rangeland manager; bringing public and private landowners and managers together to make science-based decisions and polices to manage working landscapes for the benefit of all users. She serves on Range Management Advisory Committee (RMAC), a statutory committee which advises the Board of Forestry on rangeland resources.

 

Marshall Turbeville, Battalion Chief, CALFIRE  

Marshall Turbeville is a CAL FIRE Battalion Chief in the Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit.  He grew up in rural Northern California on a ranch with vineyards and grazing.  He began working for the CAL FIRE in 1995 as a seasonal fire fighter and accepted a full time position in 2000.  Marshall graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 1998 and 2000 with Bachelor of Science degrees in Civil Engineering and Forestry and Natural Resources.  He is a fire behavior analyst and has implemented prescribing burning in varying vegetation, topography, and weather conditions.  Marshall has also responded to wildfire incidents throughout the State and teaches at the Santa Rosa Junior College in the Natural Resources Management and Fire Technology departments.

 

Marc Horney, Professor, Rangeland Ecology & Management

Marc Horney has been professor of Rangeland Ecology & Management in the Animal Science Department at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo since fall, 2009. Prior to that he was California Area 1 Range Management Specialist for the USDA-NRCS, and member of NRCS’ Klamath Basin Watershed Team. He got his start in Cooperative Extension, first with Colorado State University as an agriculture agent in El Paso County and later as a Livestock and Natural Resources Advisor for the University of California Division of Agriculture & Natural Resources. He has been chair of the California Range Management Advisory Committee to the California Resources Agency under the Board of Forestry since 2008. He is a member of the Society for Range Management (SRM), the Wildlife Society (TWS), and the American Society of Animal Science (ASAS). Marc earned a Ph.D. in ruminant nutrition and rangeland ecology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, a Masters degree in ruminant nutrition with a minor in rangeland management at Oregon state, and his Bachelor’s degree in animal science with minors in philosophy and speech communication at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Marc’s current work has to do with managing grazing animals for environmental quality objectives, and improving methods of monitoring the results of those and other land management practices.

 

Kristina Wolf, Environmental Scientist for the Board of Forestry & Fire Protection 

Dr. Kristina M. Wolf, Environmental Scientist for the Board of Forestry & Fire Protection (‘Board’), manages the activities and business of the Range Management Advisory Committee (RMAC), a statutory committee which advises the Board of Forestry on rangeland resources, along with being a Certified Range Manager in the State of California. She addresses range policy, resource needs, and issues surrounding resources on working rangeland throughout California. She has a BS in Animal Science, a MS in Soil Science from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and a PhD in Ecology from UC Davis, with a focus on the ecology, economics, and social considerations of rangeland management in California. Dr. Wolf coordinates regular public meetings of the RMAC up to eight times per year, works with stakeholders and partners to address rangeland needs across the State, assists in communications between the Board, RMAC, and advised agencies, and works with partners to develop an annual range-related public education and outreach series.

 

Clayton Koopmann, Owner/Manager of Walking C Livestock

5^th generation California rancher and owner/manager of Walking C Livestock.  Walking C Livestock strives to provide science-based conservation grazing on public and private lands within California’s Central Coast Region including the Bay Area.  Clayton is a managing partner in Koopmann Family Beef, a direct-to-consumer beef retailer supplying quality, locally produced beef throughout California with shipping offered nationwide.    

Owner/Principal of Koopmann Rangeland Consulting.  Koopmann Rangeland Consulting provides a variety of rangeland management and monitoring services to private landowners, land trusts and government agencies throughout the state of California. 

Area Land Manager for the SFPUC.  Clayton manages the 40,000-acre Alameda Watershed, home to two drinking water reservoirs, and oversees grazing operations on approximately 32,000-acres of the watershed.  Grazing is used to enhance habitat for special status wildlife species and to reduce fine fuels for wildfire protection.  

 

Ryan Nielsen, Land Manager

Ryan Nielsen is part of a 5th generation ranching family in California that has operations from the Bay Area to Oregon. Ryan has a unique background that includes habitat restoration and mitigation for species of concern in addition to managing grazing on land use types. Many of the land parcels that are managed are situated in areas of urban wildland interface of public land use, conservation easements and integrated watersheds. Ryan works to manage each piece of land with varying and sometimes conflicting goals. In addition Ryan manages a secondary company that performs vegetation management and rangeland improvements to agencies and private landowners.