Blog – Sage Environmental Group

26 Feb 2026

Sage goats prescribed grazing, wildfire prevention, Corona Fire Department

Corona Fire Department Prescribed Grazing

Sage Goats were featured in a recent social media post and KTLA News story announcing the seasonal return of our herd to Corona. Sage has supported the Corona Fire Department’s vegetation management, defensible space program since 2023. Our herd creates a firebreak at the wildland/urban interface in critical areas of the city that have been prone to wildfires in the past.

Corona Fire Department says:

View Corona Fire Department Facebook Post

Guess Who’s Baaack?!

Our favorite four-legged fire-fuel fighters are returning to the City soon! The goats will soon be hard at work grazing on dry vegetation to help reduce wildfire risk in our community.

These eco-friendly landscapers are clearing brush, improving defensible space, and helping us stay ahead of fire season — one bite at a time.

Their next stop will be the area West of San Ponte Road, near Green River Road and Dominguez Ranch Road in Corona.

05 Feb 2026

Putting Goats to Work

07 Feb 2023

OCFA Open House Goat Exhibit

Join Sage Environmental Group at this annual Open House at the Orange County Fire Authority's Headquarters. Find Sage Goats' pen and info booth in the courtyard.

Always a fun, family event .... it's back this year after the pandemic hiatus. You can enjoy meeting firefighters, watching demonstrations, and exploring fire and rescue equipment. Saturday, March 4 from 9am to 3pm. Address: 1 Fire Authority Road, Irvine, CA. Join us!

Details here.....

We will be hosting an educational booth highlighting the benefits of prescribed grazing for fire fuel modification. Come meet the baby goats and our new great pyrenees puppies. We will have a puppy name suggestion basket at our booth.

Sage is a certified landscaping contractor and prescribed grazing contractor with the OCFA.

We work closely with OCFA fire inspectors to determine the proper zones and required removal of flameable and invasive plants at client sites.

28 Oct 2022

Sage Festival at Tree of Life Nursery

Sage Environmental Group is participating in this fun, family event at the Tree of Life Nursery in San Juan Capistrano on Saturday, November 12. Join us! Details here.....

We will be hosting an educational booth highlighting the benefits of native plants, habitat restoration, and fire fuel modification to remove invasive plants.

Sage is supporting the OC Chapter of the California Native Plant Society's "A Sage In Every Garden" campaign. Thousands of white sage plants, grown at the Tree of Life Nursery, will be given to OC residents over the next several months at this and other local events.

26 Oct 2022

A Sage In Every Garden Campaign

Sage Environmental Group is pleased to support the "A Sage In Every Garden" campaign (https://bit.ly/3NisRN9). The CNPS is giving away thousands of native California white sage plants to community members over the next few months.

Follow the link to learn about white sage (salvia apiana), poachers stealing white sage in the wild, and white sage's significance to Native Americans.

OC CNPS chapter meeting (Wed Nov 9, 2022), remarks by book authors, screening of film "Saging the World," and cultural discussion lead by Heidi Lucero of the Juaneno Band of Mission Indians/Acjachemen Nation.

Join Us! Event details here. https://www.occnps.org/

26 Sep 2022

Forest masticator removing highly flammable acacia redolens

Forest Mastication is an Eco-Friendly Method of Fire Fuel Reduction

Working Demonstration of Forest Masticator/Mulcher Equipment

Sage has recently incorporated the use of forest masticator/mulcher equipment in its fire fuel modification projects in wildland/urban interface settings. In August 2022, we hosted a working demonstration for clients and fire inspectors.

Acacia Recolens Removal

As required by Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA), this client's site involved removal of a large amount of acacia redolens (commonly known as bank catclaw, prostrate acacia, or desert carpet). Acacia redolens is an extremely flammeable species of shrub/tree (because of its high content of cresote). Other acacia species are currently acceptable to fire departments.

Sage completed fire fuel load reduction on steep slopes throughout this large site overlooking the ocean. It is an area of Laguna Niguel situated in a high priority fire prevention zone. Most of the work consisted of prescribed goat grazing and hand removal/trimming of vegetation.

Why Did We Use A Forest Masticator?

The forest masticator/mulcher equipment was brought in to knock down and mulch a large area of the acacia redolens. It had overgrown to over 6 feet tall. The goats will not consume acacia, the taste is not appealing to them. Hand removal by crews would have involved extensive cutting and hauling of bio mass. It would have taken several weeks of labor and possibly create erosion on these steep slopes. By using the forest masticator/mulcher equipment the job was done in 2 short days.

The forest masticator/mulcher equipment treats woody material by mulching or chipping to a small very size and working it into the soil to become a source of nutrition. This approach contributes to habitat restoration and forest health.

What is forest mastication?

Read article

Mastication is a fuel reduction treatment method used in forestry management to reduce wildfire risk, to reduce fuel loadings by returning the forest to natural conditions. Masticating fuels, or mulching the forest, involves the reduction of vegetation into small chunks and is one of the many ways overstocked forest stands are thinned. The benefits include opening the canopy and forest floor which provides the remaining trees access to more nutrients, sunlight and water. When trees are crowded together, they are in competition for sunlight and water. As a result they tend to be less healthy. Mastication can assist in removing some trees in the early stages, to allow the remaining trees to grow faster, stronger and larger. Over the past decade, Forest mastication methods have dramatically reduced wildfire hazards and greatly improved forest health.

01 Aug 2022

Cal-IPC Best Management Practices for Non-Chemical Weed Control

Best Practices Manual Now Includes Chapter on Prescribed Grazing

This manual, published by the California Invasive Plant Council, provides comprehensive descriptions of 21 commonly used non-chemical weed control techniques and of biological control agents for 18 weed species/species groups that will help practitioners treat weeds more effectively.

Authors of each chapter have compiled research and on-the-ground knowledge of subject experts on tools and methods of application, as well as on efficacy of techniques under various environmental conditions and across different classes of invasive plants. Environmental, cultural, and human safety risks are also highlighted to help support safe and effective use of techniques. This manual is designed to be a go-to resource for practitioners that are either complementing their weed control work with non-chemical techniques or are exclusively restricted to not using herbicides. Individual BMPs will be incorporated into an online decision support tool still in development.

Available for download. Link Here.

Cal-IPC received IPM Innovation Award

Cal-IPC received an Innovation Award from the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) for its 2021 work in Integrated Pest Management (IPM). The award was presented for its work developing Best ManagementPractices (BMPs) for Non-Chemical Weed Control and building the WeedCUT online decision-support tool in partnership with the University of California’s IPM program. These resources are designed to guide land managers in selecting the best management approaches for their situation when herbicides are not an option. DPR has also provided funding for a follow-up project that will develop BMPs for chemical methods of invasive plant control and integrate those methods into WeedCUT.

16 Feb 2022

Prescribed Goat Grazing for Fire Fuel Load Reduction

14 Feb 2022

Wildfire Prevention Grants

CAL FIRE’s Wildfire Resilience Block Grant solicitation 2022 is now open. Applications will be accepted through April 1, 2022 at 5 pm.

A virtual workshop will be hosted on February 24, 2022 at 1 pm. The workshop will be recorded.

For more details, visit the CAL FIRE website: Learn More Here

Solicitation, application process, eligible activities and projects can be found in the Grant Guidelines (download link)

Sage Environmental Group can assist land managers to evaluate and prepare the grant application.

Contact Us

17 Nov 2020

Prescribed Goat Grazing for Wildland Management Presentation to California Association of Resource Conservation Districts Conference 2020

VIDEO: Click here or play button in image above.

TITLE: Prescribed Goat Grazing for Wildland Management

Presentation to the California Association of Resource Conservation Districts 2020 Conference. November 20, 2020.

SPEAKERS: Robert Freese, PhD, Senior Project Manager, Irvine Ranch Conservancy and Alissa Cope, Principal Planner and Restoration Ecologist, Sage Environmental Group.

(Introductory biographies are embedded in the video’s audio track).

NOTE: This presentation is an update of a panel discussion about Prescribed Grazing at the 2019 California Invasive Plant Council Symposium. Updates include 2020 status of the two case studies…..two success stories.

ABSTRACT: Prescribed grazing involves targeting undesired plants for removal while preventing overgrazing through close monitoring and adaptive management. IRC has collaborated with Sage to explore applications of goat grazing in habitat restoration at two sites.

SAGE: Sage Environmental Group (Sage) owns an in-house herd of goats used to suppress invasive plants and remove fire fuel load. Herd ownership is unique for an environmental planning firm and an advantage to land managers who can rely on grazing activities that are planned and implemented from a scientific and reguIatory compliance perspective in accordance with local conservation plans.

IRC. Irvine Ranch Conservancy (IRC) manages 30,000 acres of wildlands in Orange County, CA and practices landscape-scale restoration with the goal of creating resilient and diverse habitats. Priority is given to restoring ecosystem processes whenever possible.

CASE STUDY #1. The first study involves prescribed grazing to reduce thatch cover, selectively remove annual grasses, and increase vigor of purple needlegrass (Stipa pulchra) in a native grassland restoration project. Response of native grasslands to grazing relative to mowing and control plots is examined with respect to cover, density, and vigor (e.g. numbers of inflorescences) of purple needlegrass. Cover of annual grasses and thickness of the thatch layer are also examined.

2020 UPDATE: Grazing removed thatch and increased absolute cover of purple needlegrass from 83 percent (2017) to 91 percent (2019). Non-native vegetation (mostly annual grasses) decreased from 39 percent to 20 percent absolute cover. Grazing created openings for introduction of native forbs. Forb cover was poor in 2017 but common in 2019, especially Deinandra fasciculata, Amsinkia menziesii, and Escholtzia californica. All success criteria were met and sign-off was obtained in July 2020.

CASE STUDY #2. The second study involves intensive, multi-year grazing to deplete the weed seed bank and prepare sites for direct seeding with native species. This project is a recent experiment being tried in locales where use of synthetic herbicides is not an option. Preliminary data include percent removal of annual grasses and broad leaf weeds, thatch reduction, and presence of viable seeds within fecal pellets. Results will be compared with data from adjacent mowed plots. In both projects, the timing, duration, and frequency of grazing with respect to grass and weed phenology need to be carefully considered.

2020 UPDATE: One season of grazing reduced the extent of annual grasses that germinated the following spring. The extent of non-native forbs that germinated the following spring remained high. Additional seasons of grazing are needed for control. Thatch removal by grazing allowed a proliferation of native annual forbs.

LEARN MORE.

Irvine Ranch Conservancy

California Association of Resource Conservation Districts 2020 Conference. November 20, 2020.

657-505-6027