Nature’s Firefighters

When the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California was saved from a wildfire last fall, librarians had an unusual group to thank. That group was 500 ravenous goats. How did these goats rescue the library and the valuable historical objects inside?

By doing what they do best: eating . . . eating . . . and eating.

Wildfires in California are becoming bigger and harder to fight. Longer, hotter summers are leading to drier vegetation that can easily burst into flames. In the fall, strong winds whip flames into firestorms that spread quickly, threatening lives and costing billions of dollars in damage.

As a result, people are scrambling to find ways to slow these fast-moving fires and protect places where people live and work. Experts say removing dry plants is key. That can be done by humans with power tools. Chemicals can also be used to kill unwanted plants. Or, as it turns out, you can deploy an army of hungry goats.

Goats are great for the job of removing flammable plants. They can climb steep hills and make their way into deep valleys that bulky machinery can’t access. Standing on their hind legs, they are able to reach tall branches. Their jaws can grind through tough leaves. And their supersized livers can process all sorts of things—even some poisonous plants that make other animals sick. Plus, goats are safe for the environment (which chemicals sometimes are not). Their manure is even a good fertilizer for growing plants that are less combustible. All this at a fraction of the cost of a human crew! 

In the case of the Reagan Library, the goats were brought in to eat through bushes, grasses, and weeds. Goats can be found all over the world. Working over a period of days, the goats ate through an area about the size of 10 football fields. When wildfire season arrived, the reduction in dry plants around the library slowed the approach of nearby flames. And that gave firefighters more time to get the fires under control.

In California, it’s an all-out fight against wildfires, and goats are only one of many tools the state is using. And while goats may not be the most high-tech tool in the fight, one thing is for sure: They’re definitely the cutest.