Resource Conservation District Project TrackerRCD Project Tracker
  • About
    • About RCD Project Tracker
    • What are Resource Conservation Districts?
    • Contact Us
  • Projects
    • Project Map
    • Full Project List
  • Program Info
    • Projects by Resource Area
    • Project Themes
    • Performance Measures
    • Watersheds
    • Participating RCDs
    • Organizations
    • Funding Sources
    • Web Services
    • Performance Measure List
  • Results
    • Accomplishments Dashboard
  • Log In Toggle Dropdown
    • Forgot Password
    • Request Account
  • Help
    • Request Support
    • Training
    • Release Notes
    • About ProjectFirma
View Fact Sheet

LandSmart Grazing - Phase I and Phase II

Back to all Projects
Proposal
Planning/Design
Implementation
Post-Implementation
Completed

Contents

Project Overview

Basics

Forest Management
Wildfire Mitigation
LandSmart Grazing - Phase I and Phase II

Implementation
Gold Ridge and Sonoma RCDs are partners in the LandSmart Grazing Program. This project supports interested neighbors or community groups to utilize grazing to reduce fuel load and make their communities safer in the face of wildfires. The goal is that exposure to this type of vegetation management and community support of grazing will add a cost effective and needed tool to manage vegetation not only to reduce fire risks but also to improve biodiversity and manage vegetation in a more carbon beneficial manner. The benefits to community cohesion, coordination and morale are anticipated to grow as the project process unfolds and more projects are implemented.

2021
2021
2024
9/12/2023

Location

To zoom, hold down Shift and drag a rectangle.
Locations for grazing support are throughout Sonoma County.

12 Selected
  • Estero Americano (180500050302)
  • Upper Sonoma Creek (180500020301)
  • Schell Creek-Frontal San Pablo Bay Estuaries (180500020502)
  • Salmon Creek (180101090201)
  • Russian Gulch-Frontal Pacific Ocean (180101090202)
  • Upper Santa Rosa Creek (180101100702)
  • Porter Creek-Mark West Creek (180101100706)
  • East Austin Creek (180101100801)
  • Ward Creek-Austin Creek (180101100802)
  • Green Valley Creek (180101100901)
  • Porter Creek-Russian River (180101100902)
  • Dutch Bill Creek-Russian River (180101100903)

Organizations

Funders
  • AmeriCorps
  • Private party
  • Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District
  • Sonoma County, CA
Lead Implementer
  • Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District
Partners
  • Fire Safe Sonoma
  • LandSmart
  • Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District
  • Sonoma County, CA
  • Sonoma Resource Conservation District
  • University of California Cooperative Extension - Sonoma County
Primary RCD
  • Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District
Stakeholder
  • Private party
State Assembly Voting District
  • State Assembly District 02
State Senate Voting District
  • State Senate District 02
Other Partners Contract Grazers, Wild Oat Hollow

Contacts

William Hart - Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District (Gold Ridge RCD) (william@goldridgercd.org)

Performance Measures

Expected Performance Measures

Forest Fuels Reduction CAL FIRE UNIT: Sonoma-Lake Napa Project Objective: Defensible Space Property Ownership: Private Treatment Type: Biomass Removal 213.18 acres
People Participating in Activity Constituent Type: Landowners Primary Service Type: Fire Safe/Firewise 25
People Participating in Activity Constituent Type: Agricultural Community Primary Service Type: Fire Safe/Firewise 19

Reported Performance Measures

Forest Fuels Reduction
CAL FIRE UNIT Project Objective Property Ownership Treatment Type Total 2023 2022 Units
Sonoma-Lake Napa Defensible Space Private Brush Removal 205.18 106.02 99.16 acres
Total 205.18 106.02 99.16 acres

People Participating in Activity
Constituent Type Primary Service Type Total 2023 2022 Units
Agricultural Community Fire Safe/Firewise 9 5 4 number
Landowners Fire Safe/Firewise 25 17 8 number
Total 34 22 12 number

No accomplishments to report for:
Year(s): 2021
Explanation: During 2021 an application was created for the public to apply and projects were selected, but no projects began implementation until 2022.

Financials

Budget

$868,113.00
$818,113.00
$50,000.00
$0.00
Total
Grant (SCAPOSD) $184,600.00 $0.00 $184,600.00
Landowner Cost Share (Private) $20,000.00 $50,000.00 $70,000.00
Match Funding (AmeriCorps ) $58,000.00 $0.00 $58,000.00
Vegetation Management Project Grant (SONCO) $555,513.00 $0.00 $555,513.00
Total $818,113.00 $50,000.00 $868,113.00
Comment: Phase I of LandSmart Grazing (2021-2022) had a budget of $224,600 between the SCAPOSD grant and landowner cost share ($20,000). For LandSmart Grazing Phase II (2022-2023), the project has been continued with a new grant as well as continued landowner cost share ($30,000), and match funds from AmeriCorps fellows ($30,000) for a budget of $415,513. For LandSmart Grazing Phase III (2023-2024), the project is continued with a new grant and continued landowner cost share.

Reported Expenditures

2021 2022 2023 Total
Grant (SCAPOSD) $58,554.00 $126,046.00 $86,890.50 $271,490.50
Landowner Cost Share (Private) $10,000.00 $5,000.00 $16,251.53 $31,251.53
Grand Total $68,554.00 $131,046.00 $103,142.03 $302,742.03

Note: Expenditures reflect implementation of Phase I and updates for Phase II, which will need to be updated as projects finish. Phase III will be added once implementation starts.

Project Themes

Project Themes

Grazing will add a cost effective and needed tool to manage vegetation to reduce fire risks. Grazing will improve biodiversity and manage vegetation in a more carbon beneficial manner. The program implements projects to increase resilience to climate change impacts using nature-based solutions and other multi-benefit strategies. This project also continues to serve previously burned properties for invasive weed removal and fuel load reduction in preparation for future post-fire recovery activities.
The devastating wildfires of the October 2017 forever changed communities in Sonoma County, and it highlighted the necessity for fire prevention and preparedness. And then again in 2019, many communities within the County were evacuated during the Kinkade Fire. Strong offshore winds made the likelihood of fire spread from eastern Sonoma County to western Sonoma County high. We need to support communities or individuals either start their own grazing or work in community to share the responsibilities of grazing for vegetation management.
Our ecosystems have adapted to fire over tens of thousands of years, yet for over a century we have aimed to keep fires out of our landscapes & suppress them when they occur. While this has worked much of the time, it has contributed to an accumulation of available fuel, on the landscape. As a result, the small subset of fires that inevitably cannot be immediately suppressed become dramatic & catastrophic conflagrations burning with behavior and effects outside the natural range of variation. Prescribed herbivory will only remove one- and ten-hour fuels.
Prescribed herbivory will only remove one- and ten-hour fuels. But animals can be used for vegetation management and are beneficial for: air quality (when compared to the use of prescribed fire), noise, proximity to structures, steep slopes, and areas with noxious weeds. Grazing reduces flame length and fire intensity, and can therefore shift grasses from a highly flammable and effective fire spreader into a natural fire barrier. Maintaining flame lengths below four feet in grasslands also allows firefighters to manage fires without the use of heavy equipment.

Project Details

Attachments

No attachments

No attachments

Notes

No Notes entered.

External Links

  • LandSmart Grazing
  • Sonoma RCD's LandSmart Grazing

Photos

Photos

  •  

    Before and After - Example 2
(Timing: After) (~387 KB)
Credit: Kari Wester

    Before and After - Example 2
    (Timing: After) (~387 KB)
  •  

    Before and After - Example 3
(Timing: After) (~348 KB)
Credit: Kari Wester

    Before and After - Example 3
    (Timing: After) (~348 KB)
  •  

    Before and After Photos - Example 1
(Timing: After) (~356 KB)
Credit: Kari Wester

    Before and After Photos - Example 1
    (Timing: After) (~356 KB)
  •  

    Getting ready for the sheep to arrive
(Timing: During) (~5,119 KB)
Credit: Brock Dolman

    Getting ready for the sheep to arrive
    (Timing: During) (~5,119 KB)
  •  

    Goats and sheep at Ya Ka Ama
(Timing: During) (~14,772 KB)
Credit: WJH

    Goats and sheep at Ya Ka Ama
    (Timing: During) (~14,772 KB)
  •  

    Sheep at the OAEC
(Timing: During) (~3,481 KB)
Credit: Brock Dolman

    Sheep at the OAEC
    (Timing: During) (~3,481 KB)

ProjectFirma is a service provided by Environmental Science Associates (ESA), which builds on the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency's EIP Project Tracker. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation. Source code is available on GitHub.

Copyright (C) 2023 Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and ESA | Code last updated (compiled) at 2023-07-27 17:21:41.