seeing a hillside crowded with goats was an unexpected part of yesterday’s bike ride. I didn’t realize until it was pointed out to me later that they were being used to remove grass and weeds for fire control purposes.
you can see a clear line between chomped and unchomped areas. wow!
apparently there can be problems with the goats being too effective – they can cause soil erosion and can decimate the population of native plants if the goats are uncontrolled.
Other interesting things I found while searching the interwebs:
these people rent out goats for clearing brush: http://www.goatsrus.com/
the ups and downs of using goats to control fires: http://www.emagazine.com/view/?4663
…
after this, we continued up tunnel road and made a quick descent down claremont ave: