Last year's wildfires burned up over 4.2 million acres in California, racing through weedy forests and plains and on to houses and entire neighborhoods.
What can be done against raging fires?
Goats. They are at least one tool for private landowners. Goats can create firebreaks as they munch up dry vegetation. Meanwhile, they are natural recyclers as their droppings fortify the soil, making it richer and capable of holding more water.
Goats care little for terrain and frequently browse on steep hillsides or reach six feet up trees to chow down on vines and leaves — the stuff that creates what firefighters call 'ladders' for fire.
Cities and counties in the Western states have often used goats to trim weedy areas along highways. But this effort to put goats into firefighting is relatively new.
A whole new industry has evolved to pair goats and fire-susceptible property.
Founded in 2020, the non-profit Goatapelli Foundation can put about a thousand goats on a ranch where the rancher needs them, using dogs to move the hungry herd from place to place and electric fences to focus the browsing. It isn't cheap. Six-days of goat browsing can cost more than $9,000, according to the New York Times. But it's cheaper than a wildfire.
