Briefly In the News

Goat herd on hillsides to expand

Laguna Beach will add several hundred more goats to the herd that grazes the city’s hillsides to create fire breaks and reduce fire fuels, according to City Manager Ken Frank in his Friday Update of April 23.

“During the last year when there had been relatively little rainfall, the Fire Department reduced the number of goats that are grazing the fuelbreak,” Frank stated. “Now, however, we are faced with an extraordinary amount of new growth and our current complement of goats is insufficient to get the fuelbreak maintained before the peak fire season.

“Therefore, we have worked with the goat herder to increase the herd by several hundred goats and to divide the flock into two groups. One will start in North Laguna; the other will start in Mystic Hills. This should enable us to have the firebreak maintained before the fall.”

City has poor census response

Laguna Beach has the second-lowest participation rate in the U.S. Census for all cities in South Orange County, Frank stated. The Census Bureau posts daily participation rates on their website.

As of April 15, 63% of Laguna Beach households returned their census form by mail.

The lowest rate of participation was 58%, in downtown Laguna Beach.

Census takers will begin visiting non-responsive households in May.

Nutritionist to talk at Exchange Club

Nutritionist Gini Warner will discuss how she develops nutritional programs for people with food allergies, safe weight control, diabetes, eating for energy, disease prevention, and overall nutritional balance on Thursday at the lunch meeting of the Laguna Beach Exchange Club.

Warner has developed wellness programs for corporations nationwide including AT&T;, Citibank and Revlon.

She has been a practicing nutritional counselor for more than 20 years.

The meeting begins at 12:15 p.m. at the Watermarc Restaurant, (upstairs) 448 S. Coast Hwy.

For more information, visit LagunaBeachExchangeClub.org or call Katy Moss at (949) 494-0703 or Jim Rue at (949) 494-6684.

Tidewater Docents seek volunteers

The Laguna Ocean Foundation’s Tidewater Docent program is looking for new volunteers.

Volunteers must attend one formal training session of about two hours and accompany a veteran docent for training at the tidepools.

The next docent training will be at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Ocean Institute in Dana Point. For more information, contact Jake Bonus at jakebonus@gmail.com.