Fighting fires with goats: These bleating firefighters have a big appetite for wildfire fuel – weeds

A goat chomps brush on a hillside in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. Herder Michael Choi of Fire Grazers Inc was hired by the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy to manage the massive growth of invasive weeds in its habitat restoration areas. Photo: TNS

When it comes to wildfire control, you’ve gotta love goats.

Machines may be cheaper at clearing open spaces by tilling flammable weeds – and all their seeds – into the ground, but they’re also noisy and polluting, damaging soil structure and the beneficial bugs and organisms that dwell underground.