Tall Grass at San Marcos Preserve

After hiking for over a hour in the San Marcos Preserve and surrounding county property in early June, I became very concerned that nothing had been done to cut down the 8- to 10-foot weeds that covered hundreds of acres. If a fire were to break out in heavy winds, it would threaten many homes and buildings in the area.

I wrote to and talked with the County Fire Department, San Marcos Preserve, and county, state, and federal representatives. Senator Limón has a bill to pay for sheep grazing in the Legislature, and the county and preserve will have sheep grazing sometime in August. I am not certain they can eat the very dry and high weeds this late in the year.

With over 20 inches of rain in December and January, the county agencies should have been hard at work planning to get the weeds cut in February or March so that the sheep could be grazing no later than mid-April when the weeds were still edible. Now they need human bodies to be hired to go in and cut safety strips up to 100 yards from streets and 50 yards from homes and other buildings.