First Rain Farm and Land Stewardship Services is partnering with the Yuba Watershed Institute and the Bureau of Land Management on a unique targeted grazing project on Round Mountain Recreation Area, just outside of Nevada City, CA.

Beginning in October 2025, we will be using our goat herd with over 200 animals to maintain a strategically important fuel break for the community. A shaded fuel break is an area that has a mature over-story canopy, but has an open and accessible understory. Typically, shaded fuel breaks are created along strategically important access roads and provide opportunities for fire containment in the event of a wildfire.

Within the Round Mountain Recreation Area, a shaded fuel break was created many years ago along Hudson Road, Rock Creek Road, and Moonlight Trail. This is an important area to have a shaded fuel break because it exists between the South Yuba River canyon and the Cement Hill, Lake Vera/Purdon and North Bloomfield communities, as well as Nevada City proper. Over the years, due to a lack of maintenance, brush and understory vegetation has once again encroached upon the road and diminished the potential effectiveness of this wildfire control feature.

In partnering with the Yuba Watershed Institute and the Bureau of Land Management, we will be providing the regular maintenance that a shaded fuel break desperately needs to remain effective. Our herd of goats is the perfect fit for such a task because of their browsing nature - not only do they enjoy the diverse grasses, but they also eat the brush that, if left long enough, will eventually crowd the understory and create fire containment issues.

Unfortunately, there is currently no direct funding for this project and sadly, many shaded fuel breaks suffer the same lack of maintenance funding.

Because our farm is located within this area, we feel especially called to implore our goat herd to help protect our community in this way. We are calling on our community to help fund these efforts.