Hundreds of cattle enlisted to help wildfire prevention efforts in southeastern B.C.

A wildfire prevention project in southeastern B.C. has enlisted an army of unusual soldiers to help keep dry grasses and other tinder in check.

Two-hundredcattle spent June grazingona 52 sq. km areaof Crown land south of Cranbrook, B.C.,as part of the pilot project.Targeted grazing is afire risk mitigation method already being used in southern Europe and some parts of the U.S.

The grazing is "targeted" in terms of when and where the natural biofuels are being consumed.It often has to be combined with other methods, such as prescribed burning.

Removing conifers a major source of forest fires is part of the Cranbrook project managed by Mike Pritchard, wildfire prevention coordinator with the B.C. Cattlemen's Association. This practice may boost the growth of grasses and increase fire risk, but those grasses are more likely to be eaten by cattle.

"When we remove conifers, we naturally increase light and increase water, and it grows grass. And so this grass is very palatable in most cases," Pritchard told Chris Walker, host of CBC's Daybreak South.

The project usedelectric fencing to preventthe cattle from wandering away.

But Pritchard says electric fencing is not the ultimate solution. He's hoping Teluswill provide GPS collars to be worn by cattlein October for another experiment. These collars would allow project administrators to control the movement of cattle without building physical fences.

The solar-powered collars will sound alarms when the animalis within fivemetres of the virtual boundary, and the animal may get zapped if it gets too close to the virtual fence.

Pritchard runs a parallel pilot grazing project in Summerland and Peachland, B.C. He expects the project could be fully implemented next year.

The targeted grazing initiative is sponsored by the Ministry of Forests in B.C. and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

According to theB.C. Wildfire Service, there were 569 firesacross B.C.between Apr. 1 andAug. 25 of this year, with 7,656 hectares of land burned. Most fires have occurredin the southeastern part of the province.