Author’s note: This story was being drafted as firefighters responded to a fast-moving wildfire in Napa County’s Deer Park area east of St. Helena Oct. 10. This event is yet another reason wildland fire awareness and preparation must be the year-round mantra of Napa County residents.

Forgive me if I take liberties with the definition of “firefighter” in my story. The dictionary says a firefighter is “…somebody who helps to control and extinguish fires and rescue people trapped by fire or in other dangerous situations.”

Perhaps applying this definition to a goat or even a herd of goats is unfair and quite silly. I’ll let you decide.

For thousands of years grazing animals like goats and sheep have been maintaining the natural balance of grasslands and forests throughout the world. Their single quest: to eat almost everything in sight. The myth that goats eat tin cans and car tires is just that, a myth. Goats, however, do have the ability and the interest to eat the very vegetation that tends to cause us the biggest fire risk headaches in Napa County — young grasses, oak tree shoots, manzanita, all types of broom, thistles, chamise, chaparral, and yes, poison oak. Goats, if used wisely, can be the perfect vegetation management tool for our wildland fire preparedness efforts. While goats don’t fight fire in the true sense, they do create groomed defensible space that can, in fact, keep an advancing fire from reaching your home or property. 

In the summer of 2005, Calfire, the Napa County Fire Department and Napa Firewise contracted with Goats-R-Us, a leading vegetation management company based in Orinda to help create defensible space zones around St. Helena Hospital in Deer Park and Pacific Union College in Angwin. Well, the vegetation is back and so are the goats — and they are as hungry as ever.

The “goat program” this year is once again being sponsored by county and state fire agencies with the help of grants obtained by the Napa Communities Firewise Foundation. Barry Biermann, CAL FIRE Battalion Chief, is the program manager.

“Our goal is to continue the work we started in 2005,” said Biermann. “As you might expect, vegetation grows back, and the need to keep on top of risky fire conditions is paramount. Angwin and Deer Park are located in very high fire hazard zones, adding to an already risky mountain setting. Angwin has a large part-time student population and Deer Park has special needs when it comes to evacuating hospital patients and numerous elderly residents.”

I asked Terry Oyarzun, one of the family owners of Goats-R-Us, to explain how her goat-based vegetation management program works.

“We will be starting our operations in Deer Park with approximately 600 goats,” she said. “The herd (referred to as the ‘family’) is a melting pot of breeds: Angora, Alpine, Spanish, Boer, Pygmy, La Mancha, and Nubian. They will be trucked in and staged in a fenced paddock containing water and food supplements.

The herd will be monitored 24/7 by a skilled shepherd with one or more border collies. We raise and train all our dogs. Each day the goats will be assigned several fenced paddocks covering approximately one acre in size.

With 600 goats you can expect them to eat their way through one to one and a half acres per day. They will leapfrog from paddock to paddock. With around 130 total acres to eat, you can figure we will be in the community for many weeks to come. We encourage folks to wave when they pass by one of our shepherds and his herd.”

Oyarzun went on to explain the benefits of goat over other vegetation management options. “Most people prefer goats over chemical herbicides and burning. Who wants chemically tainted soil or a blackened backyard if you have the choice? Much of our work is in environmentally sensitive areas where goats leave barely a hoof print. God made goats for this job. They eat like a lawn mower without all the noise; they work in steep terrain without getting tired; and they enjoy the “salad bowl” variety of plants we have to offer.”

In addition to hiring goats this year, the Napa Communities Firewise Foundation, in concert with the Napa County Fire Department and Calfire, are funding a 17-man fire crew from Konocti Camp in Lake County to create defensible space fire breaks in strategic locations where the goats operated earlier. The crews will be cutting and piling brush that was too large for the goats to eat and for chipping and selective burning during the winter months. Expect to see the Konocti Crew in Angwin and Deer Park during the first three months of the new year.

Going back to our definition of firefighter, I hope that you agree that goats can be a first line of defense in the “control” of wildland fires through their mitigation efforts. They can also help “extinguish” fires before they occur by eating the fuel source. But when it comes to “rescuing” people — I’ll have to give you that one. I’ll take the two-legged variety of rescuer anytime.

Bottom line: Using natural fire prevention tools like goats is an excellent choice for a sustainable vegetation management strategy.

For more information about Goats-R-Us and the use of goats in fire prevention and vegetation management, visit their Web site at www.goatsrus.com. Information about the Napa Communities Firewise Foundation can be found at www.napafirewise.org.

Roger Archey is a contributing writer to the Napa Valley Register and a communications consultant to the Napa Communities Firewise Foundation. E-mail him at rarchey@pacbell.net