Don’t Fence Them In : Cattle, at Least, Roam Free Around Castaic Jail-They Help Cut Brush Fire Danger

The Pitchess Detention Center for many years had cows aplenty roaming its grounds in Castaic, part of a dairy operation that supplied milk to inmates throughout the county jail system.

Budget cutters shut down the operation in 1992 when they realized that they could buy milk more cheaply than they could produce it.

But only a year after shutting down the dairy, Roger Anderson, field services director at Pitchess, realized that the jail had a bigger problem: fire.

All those cattle had kept the area’s brushy pastures trimmed. Without them, the canyons were becoming fire hazards.

Prison officials thought about bringing in goats or sheep. But truth be told, Anderson missed those cows. They gave the place a down-home farm feel--at least for people outside the fence.

And that is why Frank Fitzpatrick’s 150 prized Barzona cattle are wandering around their pen on this day, oblivious to the shooting of guns 100 yards away on the Pitchess jail’s firing range.

“They’re pretty used to it,” Fitzpatrick said. “They’ll adapt to just about anything.”

So vast is the terrain that most of the time Fitzpatrick doesn’t even see the jail buildings while he rounds up the cattle in his pickup.

“You have to keep reminding yourself it’s a prison,” he said, pushing back the brim of his gray cowboy hat.

Fitzpatrick, 47, calls himself a cowman, explaining that he hasn’t been a “boy” for many years. He drives to Pitchess from his home in Anaheim Hills several times a week, and his Ram 2500 Turbo Diesel pickup puts him at eye level with the deputies who drive trucks of equal or greater height.

Fitzpatrick pays the Sheriff’s Department about $4,500 a year for grazing rights, Anderson said.

The area his cattle graze is separated from the inmate housing area by the jail’s inner fences, on open ground where the only inmates he would encounter are occasional work parties under the supervision of a deputy. No inmates work for Fitzpatrick.

Though other cattle ranchers have overgrazed some properties, Fitzpatrick focuses on renewing and improving the quality of the land to reduce fire hazards and soil erosion. He has divided the jail’s 2,800 acres into 16 parcels, and the cattle graze one parcel at a time.

Each parcel is “rested” for 33 days, allowing the land to rejuvenate, Fitzpatrick said.

The idea of having animals keep down the weeds is being tried in other parts of the country, said Dick Richardson, a zoology professor and prairie ecologist at the University of Texas at Austin.

“It’s still not what I would say is common,” Richardson said. “But it is gaining momentum.”

Part of the reason the idea is gaining adherents is that traditional fire prevention methods--such as prescribed burns--can be risky. And environmentalists decry the air pollution and destruction of habitat.

Fitzpatrick says he already has noticed positive results on the land after 20 months of “holistic” management.

Deputies told him that despite downpours this year, they did not have to use sandbags to prevent mudslides.

“I haven’t healed anything here,” he said. “I’ve just started the process.”

The Sheriff’s Department is not convinced that this will work.

“We’re looking at it to make sure we decide it’s the right thing to do,” said Anderson, who noted that county fire officials also are monitoring the progress.

Meantime, Fitzpatrick roams the rancho, relishing the romance of rounding up the cattle and working the land.

But being a cowman is only part of it. His, he says, is a higher goal.

“Little by little,” he said, “we’re healing the environment.”