Goat wildfire-prevention potentially under threat from CA law - KRCR
NORTHSTATE AREA, Calif. — In 2016, Assembly Bill 1066 (AB-1066) was championed by state legislators and groups like United Farm Workers (UFW) to give better working conditions for the "backbreaking work" that these workers perform.
For decades, farmworkers were exempt from standard labor laws, such as lunch breaks and overtime pay, which UFW said was a relic of the nation's dark past when such labor was mostly performed by black workers in the south—exploited and discriminated against.
However, Western Grazers Owner Tim Arrowsmith says he would go out of business after a decade of goat herding in Sacramento and around the Northstate.
He says he used to employ herders at a salaried rate of around $50,000/year, which includes an allotment for groceries and for housing. He says, now, the law would make workers hourly and raise salaries to $14,000/month, and that he and other goat herding industry leaders can’t afford an increase.
Some of the herders are South American immigrants from Peru on an H2A visa, Arrowsmith explained, and they send much of the money back home to their families abroad.
These goats are used solely for fire abatement, trimming grass for private homes, businesses, utilities, the City of Redding, and even the US Forest Service.
"We, as small producers, can’t pass that onto the City of Redding because we graze for the City of Redding," Arrowsmith said. He described it as, "your house payment going from $1,000 a month to $5,000 a month."
"Nobody in a realistic situation could make that kind of a payment, and neither can we, at this point."
Redding Fire Marshal Craig Wittner said that goats are an incredible asset for helping prevent wildfires. They are very beneficial for cost-saving and environmental measures.
Wittner highlighted goat herding that helped prevent wildfires in other cities such as Oakland, and that prices are surging for conventional fire abatement contractors.
"The carbon footprint for a goat is much smaller than a mower..." Arrowsmith said.
At the end of the day, Arrowsmith finished, this is about "common sense," not politics, and hopes to raise money through a GoFundMe called "Save CA Goats" to get a lobbyist to help re-write some of the legislation to save the goat herding industry.
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source: https://krcrtv.com/news/local/goat-wildfire-prevention-potentially-under-threat-from-ca-law
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