Fire control tactic gets critics' goat

[question everything]

Fire control tactic gets critics' goat

Experts debate effectiveness of using herds to avert blazes

By Jeanette Steele
STAFF WRITER

September 9, 2006

Goats are the hippest thing in fire prevention. From Oakland to Laguna Beach to San Diego, herds are being hired to munch vegetation that could otherwise fuel wildfires. They are cheap labor, working if not for peanuts then for crab grass, star thistle and dandelion.

But now, even in the heart of fire season, those who work in and study fire management say using goats can be a bad idea. That's because the farmyard animals clear so much vegetation that it leaves the door open for fast-growing weeds, which provide even more fast-burning fuel for flames, according to some scientists and land-use professionals.

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Kay Stewart is a San Diego landscape architect who examined Scripps Ranch hillsides after about 300 goats chewed their way through in July and August. Before the goats, the hillsides were covered by chaparral that included both native plants – such as sagebrush and monkey flower – and non-native weeds. After the herd went through, the slopes were bare except for the leafless stubs of the plants... Other problems occur when the goats' sharp hooves disturb the soil, she said, and when plants die, the loss of their deep roots destabilizes hillsides.

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There's at least one academic in the goats' corner. University of California Riverside earth sciences professor Richard Minnich has studied fires in Mexico, and he said cattle grazing there reduces the material that flames feed on. “If it consumes vegetation, it consumes fuel. What could be wrong with it?” Minnich said.

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Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060909/news_1n9goats.html




Goats nibbled at brush on a Scripps Ranch hillside that burned during the 2003 Cedar fire. Several Scripps Ranch homeowners associations have hired herds since the city of San Diego approved the use of goats for clearing vegetation in November.