CNN Life But Greener - Oct 10, 2022
CNN reports, "you may have seen goats roaming your neighborhood. Well, localities are realizing they're the furry, fun and sustainable way to landscape large areas and help with wildfire prevention, all without pesticides and gas-guzzling machines. Here's how goats are using their four-chamber stomachs and voracious appetites to help firefighters and communities clean things up."
Video by: Bryce Urbany and Channon Hodge
In response to the reporter's question "have you witnessed the fire stop at the line of defensible space that the goats have put in?" Lindsey Young, Fire Marshal, Anaheim Fire and Rescue, says, "we can see from helicopter shots .... you can tell where the fire was stopped along the defensible space fire line, so we see the evidence that it is working."
Adrian Abel, Wildfire Mitigation Specialist, explains, "the goats do an excellent job of clearing the taller grasses and underbrush. During a wildfire (this dry vegetation) increases the intensity and heat that the fire is going to put off, and the danger to our firefighters."
NBC26-KSBY News - Aug 2, 2022
Firefighters credit goat grazing for quick containment of brush fire
Photo by: City of Paso Robles Fire and Emergency Services
Fire officials say crews could quickly contain the fire because of goat and sheep grazing that was recently completed in the area. The animals are used as a fuel abatement technique, eating up potentially hazardous grass and brush.
Alissa Cope, the owner of California's Sage Environmental Group said, “When we got started it was for habitat restoration, and I just got tired of dumping gallons of herbicide on everything." She explained, "once a goat eats the vegetation, the seeds can't continue to be spread, which is an added benefit. Seeds go through their digestive tract and become nonviable, it is really amazing.”
NBC4 LA News - May 9, 2022
Goats Clear Brush to Avoid Wildfires in Anaheim Hills
NBC4 News Reporter, Tony Shin, spoke with Adrian Abel, Fire Inspector at Anaheim Fire & Rescue, who is supervising goat grazing at a site in Anaheim Hills. This area is located in a CAL FIRE Fire Fuel Hot Zone and has experienced several major fires. Goat grazing is being used to clear flameable brush in the wildland/urban interface and create defensible space next to residential neighborhoods.
The goats are perfect creators of defensible space, especially in hard to reach areas like steep hillsides. Anaheim Fire & Rescue is doing our part, and we ask the homeowner to do their part to create defensible space. ~ Adrian Abel, Fire Inspector
Spectrum1 News - May 2, 2022
CAL FIRE Wildfire Preparedness Week
It's Wildfire Preparedness Week in California (May 1-7, 2022) and Anaheim Fire & Rescue has partnered with a new vendor - Sage Goat Grazing - to help consume unwanted vegetation, leaving behind clear terrain and helping reduce the wildfire risks in Anaheim.
Spectrum1 News reporter, Sarina Sandoval, visited a grazing site in Anaheim Hills where the area has been hit by large wildfires over the past decade. She spoke with Fire Inspector, Adrian Abel, and Fire Marshal, Lindsey Young, about the importance of creating defensible space surrounding your home.
Sage Goat Grazing's Director of Habitat Restoration, Carson Helton, shared how the use of goat grazing to remove flameable invasive weeds is an important, and eco-friendly, way to create defensible space.
To learn more about wildfire safety and preparedness visit: www.ReadyForWildfire.org
CAL FIRE Press Release https://tinyurl.com/4a46nrsx
Associated Press - Jan. 19, 2022
US plans $50B wildfire fight where forests meet civilization
Biden administration officials said they have crafted a $50 billion plan to more than double the use of controlled fires and logging to reduce trees and other vegetation that serves as tinder in the most at-risk areas. Only some of the work has funding so far. Projects will begin this year, and the plan will focus on regions where out-of-control blazes have wiped out neighborhoods and sometimes entire communities. Read Article
Voice of OC - January 6, 2022
A New Approach to Battling Weeds and Pests Springs Up in OC. From spraying pesticides to pulling weeds by hand, OC officials weigh options in battling weeds and keeping pests at bay.
South Pasadena News - Sept. 26, 2019
Goats in South Pasadena | City Utilizes Grazing Goats for Fire Prevention. It’s all designed for fire prevention efforts as the animals were brought in Thursday afternoon to help clear a hillside of combustible weeds and non-native plants. The task will take 100 goats about 20 days to complete the job.
Alissa Cope, representing Sage Environmental, thanked the City of South Pasadena “for investing in this very effective holistic way of managing open space.”
Goat grazing site visit at Puente Hills Habitat Preservation Authority's conservation area. Interviews of Sage Project Manager, Alissa Cope, and a variety of fire prevention and conservation experts from CALFIRE, California Invasive Plant Council, Irvine Ranch Conservancy and UC Berkeley.
Trevor Moore, a pre-fire engineer who helps arrange and coordinate the CAL FIRE grants in Los Angeles County, hopes that this program will work as a successful model for future initiatives. "We would love to have a successful fuels reduction program that is environmentally low impact, so I can show it to other communities as a good example to follow," says Moore. "It could really help us protect life, property, and the environment."
Goats are an unlikely but increasingly popular weapon in California's fight against wildfires, which rage through the western US state every year.
Grazing site visit and interviews of Glendale Fire Marshall, Jeff Ragusa, and Sage Project Manager, Alissa Cope. (Note: this story was distributed worldwide and appeared in hundreds of publications in dozens of countries.)
The Weather Network - July 13, 2021
California finds an unexpected animal ally to combat wildfires. Goats can offer assistance by eating easily flammable vegetation and by establishing a convenient corridor for firefighters to operate in, so homes are sheltered in a safer surrounding.
Los Angeles Times - Jan. 11, 2019
Tres Hermanos Ranch is a rare glimpse at a pastoral past. But what about its future?
The City of Industry has hired Alissa Cope, a biological consultant with Sage Environmental Group, to advise on preserving ranching as a way of life while protecting wildlife — at least for now.
Pasadena Star News - Sep. 26, 2019
South Pasadena’s solution to overgrown brush? It’s snacktime, goats!
A herd of 110 goats, corralled behind an electrical fence, will dine on non-native plants and weeds to reduce fire fuel on city property. They'll graze across 10 acres over 20 days.
Handler Bradley Corson leads a herd of goats as they begin grazing high brush for fire suppression in the Moffatt Canyon area of South Pasadena on Thursday, September 26, 2019. The goats will work 10 acres of city property over 20 days. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)
CBS Los Angeles - Oct. 1, 2019
CBS News interviews Sage's Alissa Cope About Goat Grazing at South Pasadena Site
