Managed Grazing Services in Natural and Open Space

The Sacramento County Department of Regional Parks (Regional Parks) is soliciting proposals for managed livestock grazing services utilizing sheep and/or goats in natural and open space areas on lands managed by Regional Parks within Sacramento County. The primary objective of the grazing activities is to protect the community and sensitive natural resources by reducing the biomass that fuels wildfires in natural and open spaces areas. There are 7 distinct grazing areas (Figure 1 of Attachment A) covered in this Request for Proposals (RFP): Dry Creek Parkway (DCP), Indian Stone Corral, Rollingwood, North Nimbus, Illa M. Collin (IMC) Preserve, and the Upper and Lower American River Parkway (ARP). Regional Parks reserves the right to contract for grazing services resulting from this RFP from any Contractor, in part or in whole, and anticipates selecting more than one Contractor to provide the necessary services. The contracts shall be for an initial 3-year period with two optional 1-year extensions. Work performed under the contract(s) shall not occur prior to a notice to proceed from Regional Parks, which is anticipated to begin as early as January 2025. Contractor(s) may bid on any of the 7 grazing areas. Within the DCP, IMC and the Upper and Lower ARP there are several units that will be funded under a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grant, which requires Contractor(s) to comply with federal prevailing wages. The areas covered under the grant mostly concentrate on ladder fuels (woody vegetation), which require grazing by goats or a mixed herd. Grazing shall be conducted in spring and/or fall (depending on funds) and herds are expected to move relatively quickly through the areas to ensure that herds do not critically damage trees or shrubs such as bark stripping. In areas that are not funded by the FEMA grant, fire-fuel reduction and control of invasive weeds and thatch shall be targeted.