
California Dispatches Goats to Eat Brush, Prevent Wildfires - spking
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-03/california-dispatches-goats-to-eat-brush-prevent-wildfires
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staticassertion
The national park service does this in NYC. It's a win win situation, goats
eat the grass, and everyone gets to hang out with goats.

The article paints this as unusual but if the NPS was doing this in NYC that
seems unlikely? It was over a decade ago when I was there and I think I was
told it was somewhat standard.

~~~
8_hours_ago
This article seems to resurface every few years. It even mentions that it
isn’t new, but I think you are right, this has been going on for much longer
than 5 years in other places

> The concept’s not unique to Ventura County, which has been using goats to
> trim vegetation for about five years.

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forkLding
I remember that Amazon Home Services had a goat rental service couple years
back for mowing your lawns, not sure if still there.

[https://www.newsweek.com/2015/04/24/meet-goats-amazons-
new-g...](https://www.newsweek.com/2015/04/24/meet-goats-amazons-new-goat-
rental-service-319532.html)

EDIT: Found it, seems like these are the guys that provided the actual goats:
[http://www.rentaruminant.com/](http://www.rentaruminant.com/) they're all
over the US.

~~~
mgberlin
Except that goats don't eat grass, they eat brush. You'd want sheep for that.

~~~
YeahSureWhyNot
sheep are picky, goats have appetite for wider range of plants

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GlenTheMachine
This is not quite true. Sheep can eat grass more efficiently because they have
wide mouths. Goats have narrow mouths. But both can eat grass just fine.

Sheep will not go out of their way to try new foods but if they are pastured
with goats they will observe and learn from the goats, and end up eating a
fairly wide variety of plants. They'll never be quite as broad-minded as the
goats, but they will eat a wide variety of grasses, shrubs, and leaves. They
are not as flexible as the goats and can't reach as high into trees as goats
can, nor can they climb hard to reach cliffs and terraces as well as goats
can, which is probably why goats are preferred for this but application. But
they will definitely eat low-hanging leaves and shrubby plants they can get
to.

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YeahSureWhyNot
you started with saying this is not true and then confirmed what I said with
details:) thank yiy

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whiddershins
I spent several hours looking in to raising dragonflies and releasing them to
combat mosquitoes but it seems impractical in the end.

~~~
ip26
Build a bat box, drain standing water, and cultivate a native garden with
plants that attract native predatory insects. Dragonflies, tiny wasps, lady
bugs, spiders, etc. Then they'll do all the hard work for you.

It's the same with worms. Breed & release into barren soil, and they'll just
flee to greener pastures. But cultivate conditions they like, and they will
show up all on their own.

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taysic
This has been happening for many years, at least in the bay area

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Animats
Yes. The SF Water Department uses goats to keep the Hetch Hetchy water
pipeline route clear. The pipeline route is long, narrow, and goes through
hills, so it's hard to mow. They fence off a section with portable electric
fence and put in about a hundred goats. In a day or two all the brush is gone.
Then, on to the next section.

Some of the larger parks use sheep to graze down large grassy open areas. The
goats are more useful in hilly areas and less picky about what they will eat.

~~~
lostlogin
> The goats are more useful in hilly areas and less picky about what they will
> eat.

This sort of thing is a problem here in New Zealand. Fragile environments get
hit hard by goats, but I’d imagine that wildfires aren’t exactly helpful
either.

~~~
bch
> ...I’d imagine that wildfires aren’t exactly helpful either.

Without knowing what specific ecosystem you’re talking about, sometimes the
seemingly destructive fire is beneficial[0] to an ecosystem.

[0]
[https://www.fire.ca.gov/communications/downloads/fact_sheets...](https://www.fire.ca.gov/communications/downloads/fact_sheets/TheBenefitsofFire.pdf)

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duxup
There are several goat services in my area driving around with trailers full
of goats in Minnesota.

They deploy them in parks to eat / manage invasive growth, or just "mow"
overgrown areas for private folks who have a lot of land. They're really handy
for steep hilly areas that need to be cleaned out.

Before that when I grew up in a rural area if you had a horse(s) you'd just
tie them to the fence along the road and they'd trim the ditches quite nicely.

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huffmsa
Going to have a mountain lion problem in 2-3 years.

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idlewords
Mountain lion _opportunity_.

~~~
floatingatoll
North Bay concurs! [https://www.kplctv.com/2019/05/01/mountain-lion-found-
sleepi...](https://www.kplctv.com/2019/05/01/mountain-lion-found-sleeping-
outside-california-macys-tranquilized/)

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jonnycomputer
In the 19th century goats devastated the native landscape of California and
introduced the Mediterranean grasses that give California its moniker The
Golden State. The headline picture of this article illustrates my main
concern: that these goats will do further harm to native plant species. On
balance, it may still be a good idea, but how it is done may require more
thought.

~~~
imglorp
This might be an unpopular opinion, but the most natural situation is periodic
small fires that reduce the undergrowth and dead wood. There are even species
which depend on these small fires for their lifecycles. Forest managers are
probably well schooled in this but unable to use it because people like living
in the woods.

When humans interfere with this small-fire process, however, the fuel load
increases until there's a massive correcting fire that takes everything
standing including the canopy.

~~~
labster
It's also a wrong opinion that doesn't understand chaparral ecology. I live in
Ventura County, and there's no canopy to speak of. And wildfire here occurs at
2 to 3 times the natural rate. Given all of the anthropogenic ignition sources
that occur in dry downslope wind conditions, full fire suppression is the only
sane option.

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floatingatoll
When life gives you wildfires, make chèvre.

~~~
mitfahrener
And mutton

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floatingatoll
Harvesting goat milk leaves you with two resources, goat milk and a goat.
Harvesting mutton is more difficult, because you're now subtracting from your
brush-eating (so, 'breating') stock. If you have too many goats, there are
millions of acres of forest waiting to feed them and make more milk. If you
harvest them instead of use them, you'll run out of goats.

~~~
lamarpye
You could harvest some of the goats for meat. With some being a number less
than the natural rate of increase of said goats.

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pedrosorio
Slightly longer read on the same approach in Portugal:

[https://phys.org/news/2018-10-goat-brigades-portugal-
deadly-...](https://phys.org/news/2018-10-goat-brigades-portugal-deadly-
wildfires.html)

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ende
Has anyone compared the efficacy of goats vs raking the forests.

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floatingatoll
If you can figure out a way to brew pop _u_ lar beer out of forest brush,
there's a thriving culture of microbrewers who would trample your door down
with their mash rakes in hand.

~~~
Skunkleton
Goat Dung and Pine IPA. Sounds at least semi-legit.

~~~
floatingatoll
Salmonberry Cider!

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gandreani
The area where the goats trim will likely have thicker foaliage next year.
Grazing by animals is a natural part of the ecosystem. The dead foliage that
they eat is turned into poop which fertilizes the ground

I learned about it from this Ted Talk. Not sure if it's legit but it seems to
make intuitive sense to me
[https://youtu.be/vpTHi7O66pI](https://youtu.be/vpTHi7O66pI)

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olliej
Weren't there also beavers being introduced at one point as well (beaver dams
slow the outflow of water, allowing it to actually soak into the ground rather
than just running straight to the ocean)

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username223
_Oh yeah..._

Beavers were being air-dropped, and there are movies of it:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrOE-m7sX9E](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrOE-m7sX9E)

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mmanfrin
My neighbors and I rented some goats to clear up our properties in Berkeley.
It was pretty neat, they are very fast eaters. Took 3 goats about a day and a
half to clear out our yards.

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blondie9x
Good idea but why isn't this done more often and why wasn't it done before?

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floatingatoll
Goats are low-tech, can’t be patented, require regular upkeep intervals, and
have a tendency to consume resources and reproduce without profit paid to the
seller.

American culture at one point decided that machines were the only way to
control the wilderness. Happily, we seem to be unlearning both the machines
and the control lessons.

~~~
CuriouslyC
Goats are tasty and their milk makes good cheese. Machines just depreciate.
Goats are also (mostly) self healing and self replicating. Our obsession with
machines is so silly.

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ngngngng
Goats have been eating grass and preventing fires for tens of thousands of
years. Don't know why it would surprise anybody at this point.

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tonyedgecombe
I always thought they didn’t eat much grass, they prefer other plants or even
the bark off trees before they ate grass.

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maxxxxx
From personal experience I believe they prefer T-shirts and wallets :-)

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randyrand
Does this mean California government is taking some responsibility for the
forest fires? Or is it still legally all PG&Es fault?

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deboboy
There an app for this; like Goater?

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ngngngng
I think Californias would go for this. A lawn service that just brings goats
to your house once a week.

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rockinghigh
There are already services renting goats:
[https://rentagoat.com](https://rentagoat.com)

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glassriver
THIS IS THE ONLY ANSWER GOATS ARE BEST!!!

