Grazing in the Fields of War
On one side, there is the lone man and his flock of sheep grazing on land made sweet and abundant by winter rains. On the other side, gritty platoons of weapon-toting Marines rumbling across the horizon. In a plan forged by the Camp Pendleton Environmental Natural Resources Management Office, six herds are allowed to graze on the 125,000-acre base every few weeks from February to June. Fees collected go toward Marine Corps conservation projects.
About a mile inland from the I-5 freeway, Alvaro Hernandez guards his flock of 1,600.
“Not anybody can do this work,” Hernandez explains. “It’s not physically tiring, even though the hours are long, but you’re alone so many days. It gets lonely.”
Suddenly, screaming inland, a pair of fighter jets bend into a steep climb, leaving a faint, gray exhaust trail in the clear sky above the hills.
The sheep remain in their usual close formation. They’re probably conditioned to the sounds. Hernandez acknowledges the distraction with a big grin. The fancy war birds overhead are an exception to his long, monotonous day.
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