Image Credit: Submitted/B.C. Cattlemen's Association
September 13, 2023 - 12:00 PM
An unlikely hero has appeared in climate crisis and resulting wildfire emergencies in BC: cows.
Kelowna has been participating in a pilot program to use cattle to eat dry grass and shrubs which fuel wildfires.
The City of Kelowna partnered with the Ministry of Forests and the B.C. Cattlemen’s Association to test if cows could be useful in mitigating forest fires.
“The more tools we have available in the toolbox to help us with fuel mitigation throughout the city, the better off we are,” Kelowna's urban forestry supervisor Tara Bergeson, who has been overseeing the project, says.
It started last year with around 45 cows eating grass in areas at risk for wildfire. This year the program released the cows again between May until the end of June.
The cows don’t just eat the dry grass, they work together with conventional fire mitigation tactics by walking over and breaking down the coarser fire fuel like branches leftover from machines used for pruning and thinning.
Bergeson says local residents were a little hesitant about the program in its first year but have since warmed up to the four-legged fire prevention experts.
“Fencing some areas that were previously freely accessible and having this project in place for a small portion of the year was something we had to get the local community on board with,” she says. “That was a challenge, but I think in discussion since then, there's been a lot of support by the local residents. It's gone over really well.”
Other cities in BC, such as Quesnel, are using goats for a similar purpose.
A representative from Carmelo’s Goat Cheese Farm says cattle are a better option at the moment here in Kelowna pointing out cows can eat much more than goats.
READ MORE: These guys aren't kidding around with wildfire prevention
Bergeron says the official data on the project will be released soon and if the results are as positive as she expects, the pilot program could grow into an effective large scale fire fuel mitigation strategy.
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