Preventing Forest Fires With A More Natural Approach
Forest fires have always been a problem but as our climate continues to change, the problem has grown. Forest lands drying out faster each year sees an earlier start to fire season.
Three contributing factors to forest fires are:
- fuel loads
- topography
- weather
Nothing can be done about topography and weather but fuel loads can be reduced.
Clearing areas overgrown with weeds and brush to create wide fire breaks slow a fire down and gives the fire fighters a chance to get it out faster. The job of stripping wide swaths of ground to create these breaks is huge.
Sending in crews and equipment to remove the foliage is costly, noisy and hard on the environment. Many areas are difficult to get into with terrain that is all but impossible to move around on or needs equipment helicoptered in.
Using herbicides to kill off the foliage will contribute to the climate change that is causing the increase in the fire’s frequency and intensity.
How to Clear the Foliage In An Environmentally and Cost-Effective Way?
Goats.
Yep, those saucy little characters will happily munch at just about anything in their path. Well, not everything as they are actually herbivores. They will eat through grass, leaves, shrubs, stubble even toxic plants like poison ivy.
They are also very intelligent and able to be trained like dogs can be. Social animals they will work together to get up at and clear low branches and foliage. One will pull down the branch and others will eat off it.
Not every goat is suitable for this work. Some raised in captivity will simply wait for food to come to them. More independent goats that will graze for food are what is needed. Breeds like Boer, Kiko, LaMancha and Spanish are wel suited.
A goat can eat up to 10lbs of vegetation per day. A herd of 250 goats can reduce the available plant mass by about 75% in 30 days. A herd of 350 can denude an acre a day.
A herd of goats, some dogs to help control them and handlers can get into any area, including hard to reach areas.
The Demand Is There
Goats have been used in many areas of Europe for many years. In North America they have been being used since around 1991 and there is a growing demand for herds that can be rented out.
The last several years have seen some horrific wildfires sweep across wide areas of many places. Here in Canada last year the community of Lytton burned to the ground in British Columbia within days of registering the highest temperature on record.
Seems like a winning option to hire herds of goats to clear buffer areas around communities to provide some protection against fires. The goats are fed and looked after while they are doing their job.
Here’s a video about using the goats.
I could use some of those guys in part of my backyard.
NOTE: header images from Pixabay -- reworked by author
Shadowspub is a writer from Ontario, Canada. She writes on a variety of subjects as she pursues her passion for learning. She also writes on other platforms and enjoys creating books you use like journals, notebooks, coloring books etc.
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Just do control burns and you get rid of, not just marginally reduce, the fuel load. Those pine needles and branches and dead littler will still burn and no amount of goats will change that, they will sooner strip the bark off trees than show absolutely any concern for litter.
hello @Shadowspub, it is very unfortunate how many fires have destroyed large tracts of land and even cities as you mention in your post. But I really loved it because there are many things that people cannot control and others that cause other problems in the long run, but I did not see this thing about goats coming, it is something very creative and truly ecological. Goats are amazing it's great that they have this Az up their sleeve
It really is a great way to create fire breaks and feed the goats.
As the popular saying goes like this "two birds are killed with a single shot"
What about letting people gather dead wood from the forrest? I hear they made it illegal, so wildfires burn particularly hot. Doesn't cost anything but a little humble pie for officials to realize that a wildfire produces more carbon pollution than people burning wood stoves.
I don't know where you're talking about. I've never heard of any area that wouldn't allow people to pick up dead wood from a forest.
I had heard about this a few years ago when California was having a harsh wildfire season because the fires burned very hot with dead wood. Stories like https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/01/how_regulations_made_californias_fires_worse.htmlThis one highlighted the problem with laws that prevented people from doing their own forest tending.
seems rather odd but since I'm not in California.. who knows
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That first year I visited @dreemsteem i arrived after some recent LARGE forest fires. While I was there, I saw many large burned out parts and some smaller burns. One of the big things I saw, was the forestry services, managing fuels. That means, cutting and removing DEAD growth, to reduce the amount of dead wood to burn. I saw huge truckloads of dead trees being hauled away.
It also meant, they would actively set smaller BACK BURNS, to cut into areas, so that if perhaps lightening strikes started a fire, it would only burn a certain amount before encountering a recent burn and stopping for lack of fuel.
I didn't see goats.
From the materials I read they are being used in California but the goat herds are in demand. They need more of them.
I imagine down lower on the mountain, sure. but up in the Sequoia National Forest, its very difficult to get the goats and our effectively. The HUGE trees are best served by removing deadfall, and any other fuel at their base.
the deadfall the goats wouldn't be able to do but any scrub they can handle. I didn't say they were the only solution. They are one being used and an environmentally effective one.
Goats are great, I have had several and they are greatbwith clearing. Certain breeds of pigs are very good as well. And finally, I would rather have controlled burns than pesticides being used.
these days, avoiding using chemicals is pretty important.
I've been following some of the what's old is new again practices like Regenerative farming. During the height of the pandemic we obtained our meat directly from a local ranch which managed their livestock and land through regenerative practices.
As for goats, one of the local park foundations hired a goat herd to clear out excessive brush and invasive plant species. They were quite the celebrities while they were here. They have done their work and moved on to their next gig.
it's an interesting use of resources and keeps the goats fed.
I have part of my yard I could put them to work on. Maybe some day