GOATS!!!!!

Ever since the flames that swept the Oakland hills in 1991, destroying homes and causing mass evacuations, folks around here have been less enamored of Eucalyptus trees and brush. The oil from the Eucalyptus leaves and bark (which they shed constantly) is an amazing accelerant. The brittle grass and drought browned brush is excellent tinder. Many of the lands most prone to fire are either too inaccessible or too costly to trim by machine. This is why, I believe, nature gave us goats.

GOOOOOATS!!

I have a good friend, Theresa, who works in the City as a gardener. At the end of a job she loads up clippings into the back of her Outback station wagon. She is able to save on hauling and dump fees, by driving the schmutz home and forking it into the enclosure for her pygmy goats, Scout, Baxter and Tommy. I came across 2-300 full sized goats chomping, digesting and napping during a recent hike in Redwood Regional. Many hikers and joggers stopped to take photos and chat with one another about how cute the Spanish Angora goats were. People who would not normally have interacted came together over goats.

GOOOOATS!!!

Studies have also shown that in areas where goats have been used to trim out tinder fuels, any fires that do occur in that area burn with less heat and remain ground fires. Goats clear out the brush and lower branches that can create a “ladder” for fire to climb to the crowns of trees. Crown fires are the hottest and deadliest fires, the ones that spread out of control and jump roads, rivers and firebreaks.

Sleepy goat digests poison oak and other scrub.

Goats eat brush, trample growth down to dirt, can climb near vertical slopes, and fertilize as they go. They seem an obvious choice when it comes to land management strategies. The hills above Oakland and Berkeley are regular guests to these capricious consumers. Most of the goats are brought in from Orinda, on the eastern side of the hills. Goats R Us - one of the major goat suppliers to places like the East Bay Regional Park District and Lawrence Livermore Labs -  rents out over 8,000 goats who work round the clock preventing wildfires. Goats will eat poison oak, They are quiet. They did not disturb the tranquility of our walk in the woods. They enhanced it.