Ojai Valley Fire Safe Council

June 2022

The Ojai Valley Fire Safe Council (OVFSC) is being highlighted for its Community Supported Grazing Program. OVFSC program is based in part on the  Marin Fire Safe Council's successful grazing program . OVSFC's goal is to create an innovative and transferrable framework for how a community-supported prescribed grazing program can be developed and implemented from the ground up. Please join us for a journey to highlight OVFSC's origin story, the benefits of grazing, and the people making it happen.

Founded in 2000, the OVFSC has successfully managed over 26 federally funded grants totaling over $1.3 million. OVFSC is a 501 3(c) non-profit fire safe council whose mission is to promote wildfire safety in the Ojai Valley through education and action. The OVFSC has also received state, local and private grants and community donations to fund its work. The OVFSC has built effective partnerships with many agencies, organizations, and other  community partners . There is a growing network of fire safe councils in Ventura County that work in partnership with the county-wide  Ventura Regional Fire Safe Council .

The 2017 Thomas Fire, and the California wildfires since, demonstrated the need for increased community capacity to be better prepared for, respond to and recover from the threat of wildfire. This has resulted in a new focus for the OVFSC—to develop a comprehensive, community-based, community-driven wildfire risk mitigation strategy. This process was began in 2019 with the preparation of the  Road Map .

Our mission is to promote wildfire safety in the Ojai Valley through education and action.

Ojai Valley Fire Safe Council's Community Supported Grazing Program (CSGP) is guided by the approach of prescribed, targeted grazing of sheep, goats, and cattle for vegetation management and ecosystem enhancement projects in the Ojai Valley. This ecological approach is a practical and impactful alternative to chemicals and fossil fuel-dependent mechanical methods.

This program engages the community in closely observing fire fuel reduction at work with grazing animals in some of Ojai’s most populated areas, bolstering participation in efforts to increase the Valley’s fire resilience.

The CSGP is a multi-stakeholder approach with private and public landowners and managers to create a singular source of funding and management oversight of contract grazing services to carry out the goals and strategies set forth by the prescribed grazing program.

The Ojai Valley CSGP initiative will be carried out by locally-based targeted grazing businesses to support a growing local industry for ecosystem services and public safety, using this ecologically sound management strategy as another impactful asset in the fire prevention and preparedness toolbox.

According to an article by John Harper published in August 2011, "Grazing may reduce fire hazards.  Prescribed grazing has the potential to be an ecologically and economically sustainable management tool for reduction of fuel loads. Existing data indicate there are two ways by which grazing impacts the fuel load: removal of vegetation, and hoof incorporation of fine fuels (Nader, et. al., 2007). Fuel management studies have shown that spread rate and flame length decrease as dry grass fuel loads decrease (Scott and Burgan 2005). Livestock grazing may modify the effects of fire in various ways, often by reducing the fuel load (Collins 1987; Noy-Meithe r 1995).

Additionally, grazing reduces fuel load in a more selective fashion (Archer 1999) avoiding the potential sterilizing effect that an extremely intense fire may have on the soil. Studies in other regions have reported results that corroborate well with the Idaho findings. Within the montane forests of Zion National Park, Madany and West (1983) considered livestock grazing the primary factor in the reduction of herbaceous cover. Tsiouvaras et al. (1989)reported that grazing by goats effectively reduced 1- and 10-hour fuel load in coastal forest areas of California. Similarly, Blackmore and Vitousek (2000) found grazing in dry forest ecosystems of Hawaii to be an effective means to reduce continuity of fuels, fire intensity, and fire risk."

A self-deemed ‘shepherdess’, Brittany Cole Bush, AKA Cole has over a decade of experience working as regenerative agriculture and land management specialist. Cole aids in the creation of prescribed grazing programs for public safety and ecological enhancement as an educator, practitioner, and consultant. She is the sole owner-operator of Shepherdess Land and Livestock Co., a contract grazing business working with sheep and goats based out of the Upper Ojai Valley at Oak Heritage Ranch. Her on-the-ground experience includes the development and implementation of large-scale prescribed grazing programs in the Bay Area of California as the Project Manager for Star Creek Land Stewards (SCLS), a premier contract grazing operation based out of the Central Valley. During her tenure with SCLS from 2012-2016, she oversaw contract grazing programs impacting over 2,000 acres of private and public lands on an annual basis for vegetation management, ecosystems services, fire fuel load reduction, invasive species management, and biological enhancement, using upwards of 2,000 head of sheep and goats in over six counties. Cole is also the Co-Director of the Grazing School of the West, an ongoing project creating vocational paths for next-generation agrarians as land stewards through training, technical assistance, and experiential learning. Cole is thrilled to be working to support fire resilience and ecological health with her experience as a land steward shepherding animals, people, and projects.

Michael has been passionate about regenerative agriculture from an early age. At 20 years old, he began writing about the importance of local vs. global food economies. When he started his own small farm at 23, he would slip short essays lauding the benefits of localized agriculture into his weekly ‘CSA’ veggie deliveries. When asked why he was so passionate about local food, Michael would exclaim, “Localizing agriculture is not only good for our health; it benefits our community, our planet, and just tastes better!”

At 24, his daughter Lavender was born, and Michael struggled to find locally produced milk to provide for her. Not content with the store-bought fare, this first-time dad decided to learn how to milk goats to provide homegrown milk for his daughter.

Michael was milking several goats every day, and raising the dairy kids for meat. After the Thomas Fire ripped through Ventura County, friends and neighbors started to ask Michael to keep the goats in their yards to keep the weeds down. The opportunity to make a living working with livestock to help protect his community from future wildfire was ripe, and Ventura Brush Goats was born. The demand for this holistic and effective vegetation management service was so great, Ventura Brush Goats went from managing just 6 goats to about 400 sheep and goats in just 3 years. The company clears 2-3 acres of fire-fuel per day on average. This Spring of 2021, the herd is finally large enough for Michael to start a fledging meat enterprise. A long-standing dream of Michael’s, Wildfire Meat Co. is offering locally raised lamb, for sale only at the Ojai Community Farmer’s Market, Thursdays from 3-7pm

Matthew sits on the Targeted Grazing sub-committee for the Society for Range Management. The sub-committee is actively involved in promoting targeted grazing across the western United States, as well as establishing a certification process for targeted grazing operations. As a Livestock & Range advisor in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties, he was actively involved in responding to the Thomas Fire, which burned over 80,000 acres of ranched rangelands in his counties. His research and extension efforts post-fire have focused on using targeted grazing before fire to reduce fire intensity, understanding the ecological dynamics of grazing after fire, and supporting the use of strategic prescribed fire for range improvement and wildfire suppression.

Connor is a long-time Ojai resident with years of experiential knowledge working with the local ecology, the community and the landscape. His work as a consultant and designer of Ojai Permaculture involves a wide range of land management prescriptions for stormwater collection, soil health restoration, commercial scale regenerative agriculture, and ecological enhancement. His farm East End Eden, located on the east end of the Ojai valley, demonstrates regionally appropriate regenerative agriculture methods including, watershed management, tree crop systems, and grazing for fire fuel reduction. Since 2008 he has worked as an educator offering tours of his farm and experiential workshops on ecological design. A keeper of goats and sheep for the last decade he has come to understand the complexities of livestock interaction with the brittle ecology and soils of the area. Time in the field has given him the ability to advise the use of small ruminants for vegetation management and to predict the outcomes. As the Thomas fire encroached upon his farm, he was able to witness the nuances of fire behavior in the chaparral plant communities, the effects on soil, the built environment, and the watershed as a whole. This was motivation to improve public safety and protect ecological diversity through holistic grazing practices.

Olivia Tincani { Olivia Tincani & Co., LLC } is a food and agriculture business consultant and educator with 18 years of experience in the field. Her work focuses on business and strategic planning, entrepreneurial empowerment, producer training and technical assistance for institutions that service farmers, ranchers, and food businesses. She has specific expertise in whole animal supply chains, regional food systems development, food service establishments, communications, and community building. Her current work focuses on designing and executing extensive business training programs for non-profit organizations’ farmer and food producer initiatives. Projects include work with venerated organizations such as the Chicago Botanic Garden’s  Windy City Harvest Incubator ,  Glynwood ,  Southwest Grassfed Livestock Alliance ,  Pie Ranch , and  Fibershed . She also works directly with food and farm business clients, past clients including  Rancho Llano Seco ,  The Farm Bridge ,  Bonny Doon Vineyard , and the  Phoenicia Diner . She was the co-founder of food service management company  Fare Resources  and founder of Farm 255 and  Farm Burger , landmark restaurant enterprises with jointly-operated vegetable and pasture-based livestock farms in the southeast. Service is a crucial element of her business approach. She is on the Advisory Board of the  National Farm Viability Conference  and has been a guest speaker at multiple universities and conferences. She was a founding Board member of  Kitchen Table Advisors , an organization providing business and financial coaching to primarily minority, immigrant and women-owned farming businesses, where she continues to dedicate pro bono advising services to the program team. Olivia has served as an advisor and community organizer for grassroots/non-profit organizations including  CUESA ,  The National Young Farmers Coalition ,  Georgia Organics, Compassion in World Farming ,  Slow Food , and  The Greenhorns  and is a  Chef’s Collaborative  member, multi-year Slow Food  Terra Madre  delegate, and a  National Young Farmers Coalition  member. Olivia splits time between Sonoma County (CA), and her husband’s family  farm and winery  in the Valtènesi region of Italy, with her hands in the dirt and her skin in the game.

• OVFSC received a $15,000 grant from Cienega Capital LLC and a $2,500 grant from the Briarwood Farm Foundation.
• OVFSC has been awarded a $13,000 grant from the State of California Listos! Program through the California Fire Safe Council. $10,000 of this grant is for tools and equipment. $3,000 is for community outreach and other program expenses.
• OVFSC was also awarded a branded pop-up, signage, media toolkit and other educational materials, and a customized tool trailer.
• OVFSC has been awarded a $15,000 grant from Edison International through the California Fire Safe Council. The funds will be used for grazing fees, special events and community outreach and education.
• OVFSC has been awarded a $15,000 grant from the California Fire Foundation to support the Community-Supported Grazing Program. The funding will go to equipment and to supplement grazing expenses on our demonstration sites.
• OVFSC has partnered with Thacher School, Oak Grove School, Krishnamurti Foundation of America, Ojai Valley Land Conservancy, and Besant Hill School to establish demonstration and pilot sites for the grazing program. Grazing began in April 2021. We are planning on events to involve and educate the public. The Ventura County Fire Protection District is fully supportive of our grazing program and will provide direct funding and in-kind contributions of hand crews, tools and equipment, GIS/Mapping support, and other technical assistance.

 https://firesafeojai.org/project/community-supported-grazing-program/ 

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