Experiment uses goats to reduce wildfire risk -project is working better than anyone expected

azfamily ^

[chance33_98]

Experiment uses goats to reduce wildfire risk 04/24/2003

The Associated Press

PRESCOTT -- Northern Arizona forest officials are using goats from the Navajo Reservation to help get rid of overgrown brush that could fuel wildfires.

Officials with the Prescott National Forest contracted with a company called Alert Incorporated for a six-month experiment using goats to munch on forest brush.

A handful of goat-herding families from the Navajo Reservation are participating in the project.

About 200 goats are currently chomping away on 300 acres of chaparral south of Prescott.

Officials involved in the month-old experiment say the project is working better than anyone expected.

The project also gives the Navajo goat herders a place to feed their animals at a time when livestock forage is scarce in some places because of the drought.

[Conspiracy Guy]

Glad I read this. At first I visualized goats with little helmets and shovels.

[farmfriend]

Doesn't help get rid of the extra trees.

[SpaceBar]

The reason this is working better than anyone expected is because "anyone" are a bunch of paper pushing beaurocrats who have never had any practical experience with live goats. Around my town, there is a guy who, for a fee, will set up temporary fencing around your property and release a dozen goats. The goats will eat everthing down to the nub within in a few days. Perfect for hilly and innacessable terrain.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Extra trees? In the Arizona desert? Anyway, the goal was to get rid of the underbrush that fueled the fires.

[EggsAckley]

In Oakland CA they used goats to clear a huge area of poison oak. Then the unions shut them down because the goats weren't union members. Competing for human wages. blah blah blah.

Here in Santa Cruz we are trying to use goats, but our zoning restricts where goats can be raised. We can't win.

[dljordan]

I thought about using them on my place in Tennessee but once I looked at all the fencing I would have to do I gave up.

[doug from upland]

Can we let goats loose at the next RAT National Covention and see if they can clear the room of human debris?

[najida]

Goats are WONDERFUL land clearers. Everything from scrub oak to brambles, they will take out....and they make wonderful pets too.

[CFW]

Our goats (we have about 70) stay inside the electric fence (most of the time), but even if they get out, they don't venture too far from the barn.

They will make short work of poison oak and ivy, briars, weeds, etc. They are also very sweet animals and make excellent pets.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[katnip]

ping to goat thread :-]

[100American]

My neighbor had goats and they refused to eat the weeds and such on his property, seemed to prefer his palms and stuff they were not supposed to eat. Someone told me sheep were the answer, the are very good at eating everything which is why the English use them on their lawns to keep the well groomed. I have about 2/3 of an acre fully fenced and need to have something to do weed abatement other than having it tilled under every year, they always grow back worse and the local FD won't let me burn it to kill the seeds.

[7MMmag]

Barbados sheep look a lot like little goats...
short fur is one of the biggest advantages, in anything
other than groomed pastures. If one wants to use sheep
for brush clearance, rather than goats, the barbados might be most desirable. So a man who owns and utilizes these sheep tells me...

[thatsnotnice]

My neighbor had goats and they refused to eat the weeds and such on his property, seemed to prefer his palms and stuff they were not supposed to eat.

In my experience they will eat practically anything. But like you said, they prefer to start off with the stuff they’re not supposed to eat. Like your garden, for instance.

Once they eat up all the good stuff (or you keep them out of it), they’ll get down to business and eat everything else. Ours ate blackberry vines, poison oak, pine saplings, weeds, grass… you name it. They’d raid the garbage cans too.

But no matter how hard you try they WILL get into the garden if you have one. They like tomatoes. They’ll march through and eat the ripe ones, then they’ll eat the green ones, then they’ll eat the plants. They like cantaloupes. They like corn. They like flowers. They like everything.

[Nick Danger]

Goat poop is an explosive. These guys think they are getting rid of a problem, but just wait. The next time there's a fire, the fire itself won't be as bad, but huge trees will be shot like rockets into the sky. They will come down all over the world, for weeks afterwards, weighing two tons each and going six hundred miles an hour.

I made this up, but that doesn't mean it won't happen.

[MarMema]

They are also very sweet animals and make excellent pets.

They really do. We have a small herd of about 13, mostly nubians but a few saanens and a new saanen buckling which I am very excited about as he is lovely.

[MarMema]

It won't happen. Goat berries are very good for gardens, though.

[CFW]

When we rake out the barns, we mix that into the mulch for the gardens. Seems to work great! Now, I've got to figure out how to keep the chickens from eating the seeds I plant.

As RoseannaRoseannadana says: "It's always something".

[pointsal]

Some greenie will probably want to raise the "grazing fees".