Goats brushing up

Darleene Barrientos

The city’s newest employees have a tough job -- eating, drinking,

sleeping and eating some more.

A herd of 93 grazing goats arrived Saturday to begin the Glendale

Fire Department’s new program to cut back the brush around homes

where the terrain is too steep and wild for hand crews to access.

Glendale has a history of destructive wildfires that ravage

vegetation-dense hillsides. A year ago today, a fire consumed 752

acres of chaparral-covered open space behind Brand Park, threatening

homes in Glendale and Burbank. In 1990, the College Hills fire burned

100 acres, causing $20 million in damage to nearly 70 homes. The city

initiated the goat-grazing project to help protect structures from

wildfires.

Three hundred more goats are scheduled to arrive Wednesday to

forage on a five-mile strip of land adjacent to homes on Gardener

Place, Fergus Lane, Haverkamp Drive, Perkins Circle, Hollister

Terrace and Glenoaks Boulevard.

“It looks like a good situation,” said Ian Coch, a city Firewise

Community planner, of the brown, gray, black and white goats munching

on brush. “They’re just doing what they do on a regular basis.”

The grazing crew’s ages range from 2 to 5, said Don Barnes, the

owner of EZ Bar Ranch, which supplies the city with goats. The goats

eat brush but leave the roots intact, keeping the hillsides safe from

erosion.

The goats will eat most of brush on Glendale’s hillsides, even

poison oak, which prevents human workers from going into some areas.

The only plants poisonous to goats are oleanders, Barnes said.

The goats are protected by an electrified fence and a human

caretaker to ensure they do not eat oleander and are safe from

predators like coyotes that roam the hillsides.

“Electric fences keep the goats in and the predators out,” he

said. “In 12 years, we’ve had very little problems with predators.”

The goats’ stay will depend on the project’s progress, officials

said.

“We’re talking a couple of months right now,” Barnes said. “It’s a

new project -- we’re just getting into it. We need some time to

figure out what we’re going to knock out. It usually takes two to

three months for a project, but that may change.”

The program was funded by a grant from the Federal Emergency

Management Agency aimed at creating what officials call defensible

space -- a zone firefighters can occupy between native chaparral and

the community in the case of a brush fire, said Doug Nickles,

Glendale Fire’s urban forester.

The department identified six sites in the city that are in the

greatest need of the goats’ attention, including more than two acres

near Esperanza Terrace and almost six acres near Thurlene Road. The

goats will visit these sites later.

The goat project is being paid for by a $90,000 FEMA grant and the

city was required to give an additional 20%, bringing the program’s

funding to $108,000.

A few homeowners have been anticipating the goats’ arrival since

they received notices from the city about the new program.

“I think it’s great,” Roger Porter said. His house on Gardener

Place faces the area where the goats are scheduled to eat brush in a

few days. “It’s a wonderful way to remove the brush.”

Porter’s wife, Helen, was just as enthusiastic about the

four-legged city workers. The couple, in their 60s, said they heard

some pounding on the cliffs recently and assumed workers were

preparing the fences for the goats.

“They’re welcome to come down here and eat the brush,” she said of

the area closer to her driveway. “I just hope we’ll be able to see

them.”

Their neighbor, David Weeks, was more reserved but said the idea

of having goats clear the brush was a novel one.

“I can see the upside at this point, but I don’t know if there’s a

downside,” Weeks, 44, said of the program. “I think it’s an

interesting, at least, creative solution.”

Looking toward the dense brush beyond his backyard, Weeks said

that if the project is successful, the city should invest in its own

herd.

“I am excited to have my little girls see [the goats],” he said.

“They’ll get a kick out of seeing goats in their backyard, so to

speak.”