Using goats to reduce fire risk

November 27, 2023 4:38 PM

Using goats to reduce fire risk by removing weeds. A herd of goats has removed weeds posing a fire risk in inaccessible terrain in a third of the time they were given to get the job done. Now the landowners have bigger ideas.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries (30 comments total)

Carpe caprem.
posted by ocschwar at 4:40 PM on November 27, 2023 [4 favorites]

I got to see fire prevention goats in action when I lived in Berkeley and hiked up into the western hills. They seemed like good goats.
posted by ursus_comiter at 4:44 PM on November 27, 2023 [8 favorites]

My town contracts with goat owners to keep the underbrush in some (relatively human-inaccessible) park areas in check. Seems to work great for all concerned.
posted by humbug at 4:49 PM on November 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

I definitely recall the TVA using goats to keep kudzu down in certain areas (around tunnels, iirc?), unless I was hallucinating at the time (knowing me, easily possible).
posted by aramaic at 5:11 PM on November 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

This makes sense. Goats eat every damn thing.
posted by doctornemo at 5:17 PM on November 27, 2023 [4 favorites]

HireGoats.com
posted by clavdivs at 5:20 PM on November 27, 2023 [3 favorites]

A friend in the Santa Cruz mountains contends that her goats' grooming of vegetation on her lot helped save her house.
posted by rhizome at 5:20 PM on November 27, 2023 [11 favorites]

They also eat poison ivy and some invasive species.

Kudos, goats.
posted by mollweide at 5:28 PM on November 27, 2023 [6 favorites]

I appreciate good environmental stewardship as much as the next entity but must register my disappointment that the bigger ideas did not involve genetically engineered supergoats with nine heads, reconstructed prehistoric megagoats, or even mechagoats.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 5:34 PM on November 27, 2023 [17 favorites]

Rent a ruminant! Years ago, I saw a crew of goats mowing down the invasive plants and poison ivy at the Congressional Cemetery. It was pretty cool.
posted by wicked_sassy at 5:37 PM on November 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

Boise homeowners aren't shocked or surprised to see goats chowing down weeds along the foothills anymore. Although lawn owners had their goats gotten during the 2018 Goat-a-Polaza when 100 rent-a-goats turned into escape artists. Must have been a slow day, because it made the NYT.

The 75+ miles of the recreational Weiser River Rail Trail has been plagued with leafy spurge and other nasties. Every spring, goats are doing their best to eradicate it. Yes, they're good goats, Brent.
posted by BlueHorse at 6:11 PM on November 27, 2023 [4 favorites]

Goats are also being used in NYC parks, including a densely overgrown section of Riverside Park, which is near my apartment.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 6:18 PM on November 27, 2023 [5 favorites]

I wonder if there’s any chance they could use roos instead. Goats are surely convenient and stuff, but still introduced and hooved.
posted by pompomtom at 6:35 PM on November 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

I didn't think you could herd roos?

The one downside i thought of is if the goats are eating unwanted plants, won't they just poop at least some of those seeds out later and those might sprout? The article dismissed that, though.

You definitely don't want them running amok.
posted by emjaybee at 6:50 PM on November 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

Hence the "Goatham Initiative."
posted by praemunire at 6:51 PM on November 27, 2023 [3 favorites]

Must have been a slow day, because it made the NYT.

And more honorable institutions as well.
posted by JoeZydeco at 7:00 PM on November 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

The Johnstown Flood Memorial lake bed was cleared out with 12 goats
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 7:03 PM on November 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

I wonder if there’s any chance they could use roos instead. Goats are surely convenient and stuff, but still introduced and hooved

pompomtom, I think the problem with using roos is that goats can eat a lot of introduced/feral plants that are toxic to native animals.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 7:22 PM on November 27, 2023 [6 favorites]

emjaybee "won't they just poop at least some of those seeds out later and those might sprout", great topic thanks chariot.

I had to search on that and one of my first hits was my old weed science professor;

Harrington et al Recovery and viability of seeds ingested by goats "However, as all species [dock, gorse, Californian thistle, plantain, Scotch thistle, variegated thistle]* established from intact goat dung, potential exists for dispersal of weeds to new areas, especially by feral goats"

Our NZ worst weeds right there, but having watched my own goats remove Californian thistles right down to the ground they're pretty wonderful - certainly with this thistle I know they will reduce plants in subsequent years as the clonal plant root system dies if it can't make a stem. Like most weed control methods you have to understand the reproduction and matching goats to avoid viable seed on plant is (hopefully) part of this system.

I know of someone who does this in Los Angeles, they go and check the site for plants toxic to goats (including Rhododendron being a certain goat killer), site passing observation get the goats.
posted by unearthed at 7:39 PM on November 27, 2023 [9 favorites]

As I understand it, there are actually noxious weed eradication efforts (mostly Himalayan blackberry and poison oak in these parts) which rely on goats as stage one. Stage two, further eradication of weed roots and seeds by fire or chemical means. Stage three, monitoring (repeat as necessary)

A regular cycle of goat pruning works much better than most other systems, as long as your problems are delicious.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 7:45 PM on November 27, 2023 [4 favorites]

I got to see fire prevention goats in action when I lived in Berkeley and hiked up into the western hills. They seemed like good goats.

they are good goats
posted by atoxyl at 10:24 PM on November 27, 2023 [6 favorites]

Native Hawaiian farmers in Keʻanae, East Maui, are using goats to clear long-unused loʻi (irrigated terraces) to cultivate kalo (taro) again. The California grass that had taken over that land was acres, head-high; I've walked through the patches more lately, and now the green-grass edges of the loʻi look like golf courses.
posted by flod at 12:05 AM on November 28, 2023 [7 favorites]

I saw them while hiking some of Pittsburgh’s infamous steps-as-streets last summer. They were metal (in the good, living way).
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 3:48 AM on November 28, 2023 [3 favorites]

Dibs on Mechgoats as a band name.
posted by Billiken at 5:23 AM on November 28, 2023

My friend bought a house with a barn in a semi rural area. As part of the package, she ended up buying five or six goats, too. Apparently, if goats are routinely given goat-chow from a feed store, that's about the only thing they will want to eat. I also thought they would eat anything, so a couple times I tried feeding them vegetable and fruit scraps—pretty decent stuff, not moldy or anything. They wouldn't touch it.

I think they do eat the grass in their large area, but mostly they keep to themselves and just go crazy over goat-chow. They are weird, off-putting animals. I don't hate them, but they are hard to love. I guess the original owner (a single older lady) didn't socialize them much. They are getting on in years and there's only two of them left out of the original 5-6. My friend is freaking out because she doesn't want only one goat as it will be lonely. So she might end up getting a couple more goats.

I live in a city.
posted by SoberHighland at 5:45 AM on November 28, 2023 [8 favorites]

Our HOA here in New Mexico hired a local goatkeeper to clear out our greenbelts and it was always a pleasure to see them (and the two rather large dogs that were protecting them) passing through. Sadly, the service was halted over a disagreement about insurance (or so I heard). Seemed a bit short-sighted given the increasing fire danger due to our drought. They do come to private homes here for a fee.
posted by jabo at 8:30 AM on November 28, 2023 [1 favorite]

They also eat poison ivy and some invasive species.

mollweide linked almost exactly the same article I was going to link! Goats are fantastic. In New England, poison ivy isn't invasive, but it grows like kudzu, and once it takes over a patch of woodland/field, it's damn near impossible to reclaim it with anything short of napalm. (And even napalm is risky, because fire aerosolizes the damned stuff) It's so hardy that you can't kill it without removing 100% of the exposed plant mass (plus the roots, if you want to be thorough), and no one in their right mind is going to spend hours on their hands and knees in a patch of the stuff making sure there's no tiny leaves left alive after pulling it out by hand. Enter the goats, who apparently think the stuff is the tastiest treat they've ever had, and will strip the landscape barren of it while leaving other plants untouched. They're not sensitive to urushiol, so as long as you give 'em a good hosedown and don't use milk from the lady-goats, there's no risk to human or goat. Farmers around here rent them out by the day to clear parkland, and it's the most win-win thing I've ever seen in action. I'm massively allergic to poison ivy, so I am thoroughly in the pro-goat category.
posted by Mayor West at 9:40 AM on November 28, 2023 [10 favorites]

must register my disappointment that the bigger ideas did not involve genetically engineered supergoats with nine heads, reconstructed prehistoric megagoats, or even mechagoats.

Have you ever been around goats? Be careful what you ask for...
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:18 AM on November 28, 2023 [4 favorites]

I volunteer with our local (San Franciso) nonprofit goat grazing herd, City Grazing. According to their website, seeds are no longer viable after goat digestion. But! Studies (that I found by googling) say anywhere from 1%-28% of seeds survive the um, passage. They do love goat chow which we feed supplementally alongside alfafa, oat hay, and the occasional shell-on peanut. Seriously adorable and goofy!
posted by boomdelala at 3:41 PM on November 28, 2023 [5 favorites]

Good luck trying to get a roo to do what you want.
posted by creatrixtiara at 10:54 PM on November 28, 2023 [3 favorites]