Goats Help Prevent California Wildfires. Wage Disputes Might Interrupt That

Here are the morning’s top stories on Friday, August 7, 2026

• Goats have become a critical tool for wildfire mitigation in California. But grazing companies warn their businesses are at risk now that wage requirements for herders have increased. The issue has turned into a political fight between farmers and labor advocates at the state level.
• A federal judge in Oakland has given the Trump administration until Friday August 7th to reimburse legal non-profits representing more than 20,000 immigrant children. That’s after it stopped paying them in December. 
• The Salinas City Council has unanimously approved extending a moratorium on new tobacco retailer licenses into 2027.

Goats are not picky with their food. It turns out this makes them a great resource for getting rid of dense and flammable brush in wildfire-prone areas.

Western Grazers is a company that rents animals out for wildfire mitigation. But companies like this one say they could soon go out of business. That’s because as of July 1st, they have to start paying their herders for overtime. According to an estimate by the California Farm Bureau, that means a single goat herder would get paid around $240,000 a year.

Tim Arrowsmith, who owns Western Grazers, says he can’t afford to pay that wage to the handful of herders he employs. He criticized labor advocates for the change. If he does go out of business, Arrowsmith says he’ll have no choice but to sell his animals and they’ll likely end up in slaughterhouses.

These herders are typically from Peru or Mexico and come to the US on H2A visas. They move the goats around, protect them from predators, build fences, and care for herding dogs. They live out of trailers alongside the goats, often in isolated areas.

Arrowsmith says he pays each herder around $60,000 a year, for 8 hours of work a day. But according to California’s agricultural overtime law, they would need to be paid for 24/7 labor.

The California Farm Bureau has been pushing to get an exemption for goat herders from the law. Bryan Little with the bureau says, “They can’t necessarily go to the grocery store or go to the movies or whatever the case might be, but they’re also not working.”

Employee advocates disagree. Lorena Gonzalez-Fletcher is president of the California Federation of Labor Unions. She actually authored the ag overtime law as an Assembly member in 2016.

“They are isolated in a trailer without human contact watching goats. They have no path to citizenship, they have no other life,” Gonzalez-Fletcher said. “If any of us were asked to work 24/7, 365 days a year and be on call every minute of every day. I would assume that we would think that that’s a reasonable pay structure if anything it might be a little low.”

Ultimately, the Labor Fed consistently opposes overtime exemptions for workers, even if that theoretically means goat herders would have to be paid 240 thousand dollars a year.

It’s a point that some lawmakers seem to agree with in the State Capitol, where organized labor wields tremendous power.

The California Farm Bureau fought for another exemption from the law earlier this summer, but weren’t able to secure one before lawmakers left for their summer recess. They say they’ll continue lobbying for an exemption through a budget trailer bill during the final month of session.

The case is playing out amid upheaval in a system set up by Congress to ensure unaccompanied kids have lawyers in immigration court.

The government let its contract with the nonprofits representing around 25,000 children lapse last month, and hired a Texas firm tied to President Trump.

For more than two decades, the U.S. has been required by law to protect children who cross the border alone, because of fears that they could be easily exploited, abused or trafficked. After children cross the border unaccompanied, they are typically transferred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). A network of nearly 100 legal groups helps provide children who arrive in ORR custody with legal services, funded by Congress.

A group of legal nonprofits filed a lawsuit last year asking a judge to order the government to pay them for what it is owed — some $65 million — and continue paying them for more services. After going more than eight months without pay from ORR, some legal service providers have had to reduce their staff.

Alvaro Huerta is with Immigrant Defenders in LA – one of the groups that sued.

“We’ve seen that children are going unrepresented, and I think they’re gonna have a hard time explaining to the judge why children who should be receiving legal services are not getting them right now.

The judge has ordered the administration to show how it can properly serve kids going forward.

Councilmember Aurelio Salazar underscored that the primary concern behind the move is protecting the well-being of young people. 

“If an individual chooses to smoke, that is entirely on them,” he said at Tuesday’s city council meeting. “But in terms of our position, it’s something that we don’t want to start marketing to them at an early age.”

The hold will not impact the 125 tobacco shops currently operating in Salinas. But it gives the Council and city staff time to discuss issues like a potential cap on licenses or restrictions on where these shops are located. East Salinas resident Daniel Munoz spoke during the public comment period.

“You talk about protecting kids. Cigarette smoke, at the end of the day, it’s an individual choice.”

He’s frustrated with the council’s focus on tobacco sales because he says kids face other, bigger public health threats. His mention of pesticides earned him several nods from the audience.

The urgency ordinance that was approved earlier this summer will now be in place until June.