As part of a growing effort to reduce the risk of wildfires in Colorado, cattle are being deployed to eat dry grass that often fuels fast-moving flames.

Colorado

Researchers and city officials in Boulder County, Colorado, have implemented a cow grazing program to help prevent wildfires. By allowing cattle to graze on steep mountain slopes, the program reduces grass height from several feet to about six inches, which can slow the spread of potential fires.

The initiative involves rotating cattle across 35 acres near residential areas, with the goal of reducing fuel for wildfires and improving safety for nearby communities. Similar programs are becoming more common in other western states, as officials look for effective ways to manage wildfire risks.

Cows helping prevent wildfires

While you may believe water is the best way to fight wildfires, researchers in Colorado believe there is another way. A new cow grazing program is putting farm animals on the front lines to stop the threat of fires before they arrive. Our Kennedy Hayes shows us how it works. Here in Boulder County, Colorado, the region's steep mountain slopes, high winds, and dry weather make it extremely vulnerable to wildfires. So recently, city officials started using cattle grazing as a way to reduce the risk, and so far they say it's working. These cows don't realize it, but step by step and chomp by chomp, they're doing their part to reduce the risk of wildfires. We're aiming to bring the grass height down to around six inches, and that's down from between three or four feet if it were left unmanaged. Out here where the fire threat is higher, lower grass could mean smaller, slower-moving flames if a wildfire does break out. As the cattle trample, as they graze, they break up some of that thatch, so we're looking for a reduction of fuel height in the grasses, and we're also looking for some decomposition and degradation of the thatch that lies underneath the living grass. Seventy cattle graze right near homes at Wonderland Lake Park. The goal give firefighters a better chance of protecting people and their property. Most people think of cattle as a primary grazer, but we also have cattle, sheep, goat, um, basically anything that that uses the grasses and the fine fuels as a food source. In Boulder, local ranchers bring in the herd by trailer. Then the cows go to work, raising 35 acres over two weeks and rotating around five acre sections to make sure the growth stays even. Later this fall, the herd will move to another at risk neighborhood nearby. With a really heavy rainfall season, I think a lot of people are quite excited because their green is getting greener and it's growing taller. Um, but at the end of the day, that green that's getting green and growing taller is also going to dry out. Um, and that's gonna pose a risk to some capacity for wildfires. The USDA says initiatives like these are becoming more common out west, with officials in Idaho and Nevada using cattle grazing as a way to reduce wildfire risk in Boulder, Colorado. Kennedy Hayes, Fox News. It has

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