ADORABLE FIRE PREVENTION
BY MICHELLE STROMBERG
STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

A goat from Goats-R-Us herd looks up from his buffet. MICHELLE STROMBERG / GUARDSMAN

It's springtime in San Francisco. Flowers are blooming, birds are chirping and goats are grazing.

Goats? That's right, goats.

Spending four days grazing the overgrown hills surrounding the Balboa reservoir, the goats were right at home. Onlookers greeted the animals with both excitement and surprise.

To clear excess brush and shrubbery around the reservoir, 50 goats were sent by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. Goats R Us, a family-owned grazing company based in Orinda, Calif., provided the animals. The herd included a variety of breeds: Angora, Alpine, Spanish, Boer, Pygmy, LaMancha and Nubian.

“It's a very popular thing to do,” said Terri Holleman, co-owner of Goats R Us. “It's the current ecologically-correct mode of doing fuel mitigation. People don't want controlled burns. They don't want chemicals used. Hand crews are OK, but that's a lot of hard labor and sometimes noisy machines.”

If you're surprised by this venture, you're not alone. For most people the image of a goat conjures thoughts of garbage eaters or stinky trouble-making beasts. Like infants, goats learn about their world by tasting it. They wrap their lips around buckets, fence posts, tires, laundry and even tin cans.

Of course, goats prefer ivy, underbrush, grass and hay, but they will eat what they can get, even poison oak and thistles, which makes them adaptable. Goats can survive in many weather conditions, and can eat anything to stay alive.
Holleman credits the growing popularity of her business not only because these grazers are one of Mother Nature’s most effective fire control systems, but also because of the reaction people have to the bucolic image of the goats grazing on hillsides.

"These goats work year-round," Holleman said. "During the fire season, they reduce the fuel load, and in the winter they reduce brush and thistles and provide other types of clearing."

The fee for these big eaters depends on the size of the site and the type of vegetation, but on average it costs $700 per acre, including transportation, the shepherd's salary, fencing and insurance.

In addition to the Public Works for the City of San Francisco, Holleman’s clients include the East Bay Regional Parks District and UC Berkeley.

Preventing fires and eliminating waste are two things these animals do best and let's not forget, according to Holleman.

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