I'm no expert on it, but the cattle in a forest environment have the ability, between grazing, tramping and inhabiting those areas, to keep the underbrush down to a minimum and keep that fuel source down, so it doesn't present the risk of the major fires that we've had in the past.
In the past, there were small fires that kept those covers of understorey in check. Because it's closer to urban areas now, small fires are not acceptable. Cattle can come in to replace that, keep some of that undergrowth in check and hopefully mitigate some of the fire risk.