The Wool Wire | June 5, 2025

News snippets from the wool world

Hello, my dear woolheads!

I write to you from Maine, where smoke from the Canadian wildfires has turned our sky a disconcerting shade of putty. But our gloomy sky is nothing compared to what our friends in Canada are enduring. I hope everyone can stay safe.

We've talked about the connection between grazing sheep and wildfire prevention before. Sheep can also help repair land after it's been ravaged by wildfires—as the sheep in Carson City, Nevada, have been doing since 2006.

Following the Waterfall Fire, the sheep project was initially conceptualized as a cheatgrass reduction project, given the flush of fine fuels and invasive annuals that was anticipated following disturbance from the fire.

Eighteen years later...

...as the area has been able to recover, the project goal has shifted away from targeted cheatgrass reduction, and into a much broader fuels reduction project to reduce fire risk in Carson City and increase safety and community resilience from another devastating wildfire like that seen in 2004. 

I like how the Carson City sheep project website is full of helpful, timely information for residents about where the sheep will be grazing and for how long, what to do when hiking with your dog, how to respond if a sheep strays into your yard, etc. It's a valuable community project that supports sheep and helps take care of public land.

Use Wool, For Peat's Sake!

Last year I told you about how wool was being used in a peatland restoration project in Wales. Now, Northern Ireland is giving it a try.

The Ulster Farmers’ Union and Ulster Wildlife are collaborating with Sustainable Rope Ltd, Ulster Wool and Ulster University, to create and trial prototypes made of Northern Irish wool on areas of eroded and bare peat to improve peatland health.

Everyone wins. Local farmers have a built-in market for their wool, since the project sources wool from sheep grazing on the very same areas of land as are being repaired. Nobody's shipping coconut husks halfway around the world. Runoff can slow, water can stay put longer, and the peatlands can eventually heal.

A wool revival in Rajasthan

From the peatlands of Northern Ireland we head to India for a fascinating story about a wooly social enterprise taking root.

The founder originally thought she'd help women in remote Rajasthan villages by bringing their artisanal products to a broader market. Then she noticed that these women were spending a lot of their time taking care of their sheep, whose coarse wool had little commercial value.

That's when the project made the brilliant pivot towards one of the few markets where coarse sheep's wool is showing promise: Insulation and acoustic panels.

It has revived sheep rearing as a profitable enterprise for over 500 pastoral families in the region, and provides employment for 35 women at its processing centres.

Read the full story.

A long time coming

And finally, a new piece in The New York Times (gift link) has made my heart sing. Written by Steven Kurutz (author of American Flannel), the article shines a long-overdue spotlight on the work Jacob Long has been doing to breathe new life into American Woolen Company and, by extension, the American wool industry itself.

I talk a lot about mills and dyehouses and yarn companies closing in this country. By and large, the recent proposed tariffs by the Republican administration are decades too late for any kind of major textiles revival in this country. However, we still have one person modeling what is still possible if you keep passion, principles, craftsmanship, and the pursuit of revenue in healthy balance. That person is Jacob Long.

It's a moving story with gorgeous photos you'll love. (Again, here's a gift link.)

On that note, I'll let you go.

Thanks, as always, for your readership and your support.

Until next time,

Clara