The California Legislature’s failure to act has effectively ended many targeted goat grazing businesses that provide critical wildfire prevention services throughout California.
As a result of the new labor requirements, our company is now required to pay each of our goat herders an annual wage of $242,548.80. Ironically, sheep herders performing essentially the same work under the same conditions—but with different animals—remain exempt from these requirements.
There is no practical or public safety justification for treating these two industries differently.
My son and I started our family business in 2014 with just 20 goats. Through years of hard work, we grew our operation to more than 1,000 goats and sheep.
We have dedicated ourselves to providing environmentally friendly, organic vegetation management and wildfire fuel reduction services throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Our work helps homeowners, businesses, parks, utilities and public agencies reduce wildfire risk without the use of heavy machinery or herbicides.
This new requirement makes it financially impossible for us to continue operating our goat grazing business. We will be forced to lay off our dedicated herders and significantly reduce or eliminate the wildfire prevention services that our communities have come to rely on.
The consequences extend far beyond our business. Every goat grazing company forced to close means fewer acres of hazardous vegetation cleared, fewer tools available to firefighters and land managers and a greater wildfire risk for California communities.
At a time when the state is investing billions of dollars in wildfire prevention and climate resilience, forcing goat grazing companies out of business is contrary to those goals.
We respectfully urge the governor and the California Legislature to immediately correct this inequity by extending the same herder wage provisions that apply to sheep herders to goat herders engaged in wildfire fuel reduction and vegetation management.
California should be supporting—not eliminating—an industry that protects lives, homes, wildlife and critical infrastructure from catastrophic wildfire.
For our family, this is not simply about a business. It is the loss of more than a decade of hard work, the livelihoods of our employees, and a service that has helped make California’s communities safer.
We ask our elected leaders to act before more family-owned businesses are forced to close.
Brian & Daniel Allen
Owners, Green Goat Landscapers
