Goats graze dry brush throughout the county, limit fire risk

SAN DIEGO (KGTV)— You may have noticed them on your daily drive on hillsides around the county. Several goats along hillsides, munching on plants, are hard at work.
“We have a lot of native plants that can be problems if they’re overgrown,” says Johnny Gonzalez, Operational Manager of Environmental Land Management.
These grazing goats come from Environmental Land Management Goats or ELM goats at Lake Miramar.
Since 1998, hundreds of goats have been employed to graze away at dry brush.
“This is basically what the goats are eating. This is one of the invasive plants that they’re munching on, but it’s native to the goats,” says Gonzalez.
They play an essential part in limiting the risk of fires in these open areas of dry brush, which Gonzalez says can spark and spread fires quickly.
“These plants are very flammable; they’re part of the fuel load,” he says. “Many of them are not native, and they become at least 75% of our problem. But the invasive weeds taking up a lot, these nutrients, minerals becoming blight; they’re the fire problem.”
In the last 24 hours, two local brush fires forced San Diegans from their homes. Neighbors in those dry canyon areas say things can get out of control instantly, like Jaime Mercado. He lives near the brush fire that sparked in Bonita just under the SR-125. That was steps from his home.
“These things don’t just have spontaneous combustion — somebody is around there, they’re careless. They throw a cigarette, or they start something to cook, and then there it goes.”
This is why the abilities of these goats are emphasized.
“The difficult-to-access areas, that’s where most people see goats, and they are very, very useful,” says Gonzalez.
SDGE also recently turned to goats to create fire breaks around electric infrastructure, and it’s all about staying ahead of it.
“If we employ more goats and do it ahead of the fire, we can keep a lot of our native land staying, as call it restored, but it’s actually fireproof and sustainable.”