[HN Gopher] Goats Became the Unconventional Weapon Against Wildf...
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Goats Became the Unconventional Weapon Against Wildfires
Author : prostoalex
Score : 31 points
Date : 2021-09-21 20:30 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.nytimes.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.nytimes.com)
| tonymet wrote:
| This has been common in the SF Bay Area for 15 years now. They
| are adorable and fun to spend time around- it feels like living
| in the old country.
| luhn wrote:
| Unrelated to the article, but NYT is forcing me to login before
| reading the article. I guess the days of opening a private window
| to circumvent the three articles per month limit are over.
| mountainriver wrote:
| Uber for goats? Anyone want to get in on this?
| woodgrainz wrote:
| https://archive.ph/OAibx
| coding123 wrote:
| I'm in an Arctic Fox camper right now.
| pvaldes wrote:
| So, taking in mind that goats (and deer) are everywhere, why we
| still have wildfires?
|
| They do really think that ants and other insects process less
| flammable material than goats do?
| belorn wrote:
| > They arrive early and open the trailer. The goats jump out,
| ready to eat, as Ms. Malmberg watches that they don't stray.
| The team sets up an electric fence to confine the goats and
| their meals to a specific area overnight.
|
| Doing the same thing with deers would be much harder. Keeping
| deer confined in a specific area in order to concentrate the
| grazing requires much better fences, and when they
| inadvertently escape it takes much more work to bring them
| back.
|
| My biggest questions with this setup is how they keep the cost
| down from setting up an electric fence in order to create a
| good fire wall. Electric fences are generally very labor
| intensive, and we seems to be talking about steep slopes in
| some cases.
| w-ll wrote:
| Could it be done with just a shock collar and a geo-fence?
| Swizec wrote:
| > My biggest questions with this setup is how they keep the
| cost down from setting up an electric fence in order to
| create a good fire wall
|
| They don't. Friend of mine owns some land north of SF and was
| quoted $5000 to have goats come eat the grass.
|
| I suspect his land is too small to be worth the hassle for
| the goat service provider so he was quoted the go away price.
| GravitasFailure wrote:
| There are more mobile systems that are easier to set up
| quickly. I don't know how they'd fare against a herd of
| cattle, but they seem to contain the goats around here just
| fine.
| jasonboyd wrote:
| Are goats everywhere? The handful of places I've lived (Central
| Florida and SF bay area) I've never seen a "wild" goat. Deer,
| sure. But deer seem to be much pickier than goats when it comes
| to their diets
| soperj wrote:
| I've had deer eat potato and tomato plants, and marigolds.
| They don't see particularly picky. They don't eat lavender...
| toast0 wrote:
| Goats and Deer are picky eaters, if they've got a buffet
| they eat what they like and avoid what they don't like.
|
| Goats eating trash is usually a mix of curiosity/exploring
| with their mouth, the glues are often tasty, and some
| people are jerks and don't feed their goats/hungry goats
| will find calories.
| bobthepanda wrote:
| Goats are used in Seattle to clear away invasive
| blackberry, which are quite annoying to get rid of.
|
| https://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Rent-a-goats-
| gain-fo...
| jasonboyd wrote:
| I've seen goats eat trash so...
| soperj wrote:
| lol. okay. I stand corrected.
| soperj wrote:
| Deer aren't everywhere. I live in a city where I see deer
| literally every single day. Multiple times a day. I've never
| seen one in the forest here. Not once. Cougars come into town
| regularly because that's where the food is.
| pvaldes wrote:
| Maybe they visit the forest at night?...
| WalterBright wrote:
| Deer in the Seattle area only eat landscaping and garden
| plants. They leave the native plants and the invasive weeds
| alone.
|
| Fortunately, my yard is mostly invasive weeds, so I don't have
| problems with the deer.
| bobthepanda wrote:
| The goats get used in Seattle for blackberry.
| https://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Rent-a-goats-gain-
| fo...
| SlipperySlope wrote:
| In the Colorado mountains, deer eat wildflowers and baby
| aspens but leave grass, juniper, and pines alone.
| hindsightbias wrote:
| IDK of any wild goats in the Bay Area. Know of one goat ranch
| in Napa county.
|
| IMO goats should be released in masses to the foothills
| everywhere. 98% of what has/is burning isn't urban or
| agricultural.
|
| Vineyards can spend more on fencing or fire insurance...
| sulam wrote:
| If you've seen one of these setups (the SF Bay Area has been
| doing this a while, so I see it a fair amount), you know that
| it takes a lot of goats to clear a hillside. Like in the 50
| range. There are not enough deer to get the job done.
| hindsightbias wrote:
| I was told by someone that it takes about 200 goats/acre/day
|
| So guessing that's why her herd is that size.
| r00fus wrote:
| Deer are not _everywhere_. They would probably need to exist in
| higher ratios, even where they do frequent.
| 1970-01-01 wrote:
| Can sheep and rams also be unconventional weapons?
| uoaei wrote:
| Since when is clearing flammable grasses and underbrush to
| prevent wildfires "unconventional"?
| gricardo99 wrote:
| From the article: is among a few individuals
| using grazing methods for fire mitigation
| yukinon wrote:
| I am not sure if you are being obtuse or not, but the
| "unconventional" part is referring to the practice of using
| goats.
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(page generated 2021-09-21 23:00 UTC)