Meet Michael Leicht

We recently connected with Michael Leicht and have shared our conversation below.

Michael, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

The Thomas Fire that began in Ventura County in late 2017 had such a huge impact on my community. At that time it was the largest wildfire in California. No community member was left unchanged, including me. With a desire to help prevent future disasters, I began the Ventura Brush Goats vegetation management company.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I am passionately growing our ‘prescribed grazing’ company in order to meet the growing demand around the state for our vegetation management services. With a service region spanning from San Diego all the way to the Bay Area, we grow our herd each year to keep up with the growing quantity of acreage that needs to be mitigated of fire fuels in the wildland-urban interface. I am extremely passionate about protecting lives and valuable property from the dangers of unmitigated wildfire.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

I had to learn everything from the ground up. Starting with very little experience with livestock, business, or wildfire, I had to seek mentorship. I found excellent mentors in each of these three categories, and became certified as a firefighter in order to better understand the needs of our clients, wildfire behavior, and how to use sheep and goats to effect the outcomes we wanted to see.

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?

We are now seeking relationships with larger landholding stakeholders such as Sanitation Districts and Landfills, Water Districts, Energy Companies, or any private or public entities that have large land bases to manage. We have created a model that utilizes rotational grazing to mitigate encroaching vegetation on any terrain in a cost effective manner never before available with conventional machines or herbicides. For many years, we have been happily protecting properties 5-100 acres in size, and we are very excited now to have developed a model to be able to manage larger landscapes where conventional means of fuels mitigation may not be cost effective.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.venturabrushgoats.com
• Instagram: @venturabrushgoats
• Facebook: Ventura Brush Goats
• Other: email brushgoatquote@gmail.com

Image Credits

All images provided by Ventura Brush Goats