Posted on Aug 11, 2023
In California, wildfires are prevented by crews of unlikely firefighters: goats
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https://www.npr.org/2023/08/10/ [login to see] /goat-grazing-california-wildfire-prevention
The end of a quiet residential street in Glendale, Calif., is just one of many battlegrounds in the state's annual fight against wildfire season. And it's being waged by goats.
About 300 of them are spread out along the foothills and steep ridges of the Verdugo Mountains, which loom over multi-million dollar homes at the end of a cul de sac. The goats are busy chomping away on the dried-out vegetation that's exploded after this year's drought-busting rains.
Seemingly oblivious to the 94 F heat, the animals are hard at work devouring several acres of dead, yellowed grasses, scrubby bushes and cactus, as well as some of Southern California's most invasive plants, including star thistle and black mustard.
The end of a quiet residential street in Glendale, Calif., is just one of many battlegrounds in the state's annual fight against wildfire season. And it's being waged by goats.
About 300 of them are spread out along the foothills and steep ridges of the Verdugo Mountains, which loom over multi-million dollar homes at the end of a cul de sac. The goats are busy chomping away on the dried-out vegetation that's exploded after this year's drought-busting rains.
Seemingly oblivious to the 94 F heat, the animals are hard at work devouring several acres of dead, yellowed grasses, scrubby bushes and cactus, as well as some of Southern California's most invasive plants, including star thistle and black mustard.
In California, wildfires are prevented by crews of unlikely firefighters: goats
Posted from npr.org
Glendale
State of California
Firefighting
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 2
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Very effective in truth. They clear weeds and other grasses that burn. That's what they needed in Hawaii where they let fields go fallow and got invasive grasses that died and became fire fodder
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It's one of the reasons (goats) the Army used them inside ammo dumps. Keep the grass/foliage down, and didn't require gasoline mowers; or blades that could spark against a hard object.
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