And the largest flock of sheep in western Washington is right here on Lopez Island. Shepherd Julie Matthews figures that she has about 950 new lambs, though she has yet to finish docking their tails and making her first complete count of this year s crop. Julie s pasture-based sheep operation uses approximately 600 acres of land, none of which she owns. Pasturing her sheep on other people s land has worked well for both Julie and the landowners. Some people lease their land to Julie so that it will stay in active agricultural use.
Some people have allergies and want the grass kept short without having to mow it.
Some people simply believe in what Julie is doing and want to participate in any way they can. And everybody, Julie included, wants to maintain and improve the quality of the land. Mowing or cutting for hay alone is not a sustainable practice. Her rotations depend on the availability of feed, the stage of grass growth, and the number of sheep to the number of acres. Before moving to Lopez Island, Julie worked at several jobs, from a 1000-acre organic produce farm north of Fort Collins, Colorado, to a San Francisco organic produce wholesale operation.