The Guardian

‘Goats are the best tool’: grazers in high demand to reduce US wildfire risk

In the face of climate change and deadly fires, states from California to Colorado are turning hungry animals loose on the countryside
Goat farmer Bob Blanchard tends to his flock above Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in Avila Beach, California. Photograph: Phil Klein

As the western US braces for another wildfire season, following its most devastating on record, public officials and private landowners are turning to an unlikely, rustic tool to manage increasingly incendiary lands.

Goats.

They’re currently munching away at summer-dried, fire-ready grasses in Oregon, , Colorado, Idaho, Montana, , Nevada and across California. In some places that outlaw livestock within city limits, officials have even in order to unpave the way for goat grazers.

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