THE WEED FROM HELL

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Smokey the Sheep?

One of Sebastien Minaberri's enthusiastic firefighters.

In southern California, sometimes it doesn't rain as much as eight inches all year. The Santa Ana wind blows off the desert, temperatures soar, and the 200,000-acre Angeles National Forest becomes fodder. (The "forest" is more chaparral than trees.) But given all the rainfall in California recently, could there possibly be a repeat performance of last year's fires? In short, absolutely.

Bernice Bigelow, Angeles National Forest Resource and Planning Officer, says storms that dropped southern California's annual rainfall in a matter of days in January have nourished grasses and brush that, as temperatures heat up, will actually provide perfect conditions for more uncontrollable fires in the area this summer. But they are also perfect feed for Sebastien Minaberri's sheep, a flock whose appetite plays an important role in minimizing the spread of fires here.

Minaberri has a unique grazing rights agreement with the Angeles National Forest that allows him to graze a few hundred sheep at a time along firebreaks. Fire crews strip out the dense brush along ridgelines to "break" the path of spreading fires, and then the sheep come in and graze the ridgelines. According to Shawna Bautista, a wildlife biologist who manages the forest's sheep grazing project, "The annual grazing permit changes depending on the conditions. If there is a drought or something, I won't allow sheep in the forest. The purpose of my project is not to grow fat sheep."

Bigelow explains that grazing permits for cattle and other livestock on public lands are sometimes perpetual and are issued as a source of revenue without taking changing land conditions into consideration. This project is different, she says, since vegetation management alone dictates the grazing permit. Bigelow says, "We have some very steep slopes, and it is better on the land to use sheep than heavy equipment to keep it clear .. . . We think of them as an organic mowing service."

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