Goats Will Sink Their Teeth Into Firefighting Biz : Public works: Laguna Beach to try putting 500 of the plant-munching animals to maintaining firebreaks at a cost of about $822 an acre.

Deputy Fire Chief Rich Dewberry thought he had a pretty good idea last year when he proposed that goats, instead of people, be used to clear hillsides to reduce fire danger.

Goat herds, he had learned, already were at work maintaining firebreaks in Topanga Canyon and in Northern California.

But Dewberry’s idea ignited controversy, as some residents wondered whether the goats would ruin the landscape, import Lyme disease, or break loose and breed uncontrollably.

A year and a month after the initial proposal, Dewberry and goatherd Ken McWilliam answered the critics’ concerns Tuesday and received the council’s approval to begin a trial program using 500 goats on 152 acres of land.

The trial areas will be Top of the World, the Nyes/Portafina area around Nyes Place, and an area parallel to Skyline Drive and Park Avenue.

“They can (clear) anywhere from 1 1/2 to 4 acres a day,” Dewberry said before the council vote. He predicted that the herd could get the job done in about 180 days.

The program will cost $125,000, about $822 per acre, including the moving and veterinary costs for the goats, compared to anywhere from $800 to $1,800 per acre if the city used prison inmates or contract crews.

Dewberry said the inmates cost more and have higher-priority projects.

But the council did not hire the goats without some questions.

City Councilwoman Ann Christoph wondered whether the test area could be reduced in size and be monitored by a biologist. McWilliam said he did not mind having a biologist on hand.

Christoph also said she was concerned that the goats would not be able to discriminate between fire-prone plants and ones that are worth keeping. And she asked how the goatherd would make sure that none of the animals stray from the pack.

“How would the goats be managed and where do they live after working hours,” Christoph asked, wondering if they would show up in someone’s back yard.

Aware that the cable television audience might be puzzled by the discussion, Mayor Neil G. Fitzpatrick joked, “If anyone just tuned in, this is not ‘Saturday Night Live.’ ”

Dewberry said the goats will feed in existing firebreaks which lack desirable plants. They also would be kept in portable fencing that would be moved along as the herd munches along the firebreaks.

“The flock keepers would actually be on site overnight with the animals,” Dewberry said.

Laguna Greenbelt Inc. president Elisabeth Brown renewed the concern about the introduction of Lyme disease to the area, but the city fire official said the flock would be certified by a veterinarian as being “disease-free.”

Brown also wondered what would happen to the goats if they came upon a mountain lion, which reportedly has been sighted in Crystal Cove State Park.

“I love all the animals actually,” McWilliam said, “so if a mountain lion eats one goat or two, it doesn’t bother me.”

This will not be the first time that grass-eating creatures have been been employed to clear hillsides. Last May, a developer working at a site in San Clemente used 2,000 sheep to clear land for 5,000 new homes.

The unique partnership between the shepherd and the developer, it was reported, provided much needed grazing for the sheep and saved the developer thousands of dollars.