Bio-fire fighting in California: With goats against the flames

Read the video transcript here

Fires as far as the eye can see - during the currently historically strong heat waves and dry phases in the western United States, firefighters fight against an apparently overpowering enemy to save places like here in California from destruction.

And now more and more often they get support from these four-legged helpers: goats.

Johnny Gonzales, Environmental Land Management

“The goats pick up things like that dry mustard or scrub and take away dead plants and peat that are flammable.

So they create an open space like this one.

In the manure pellet, everything becomes a unique, shredded shape that has been modified so much that literally only dried pieces and small particles of eaten vegetation remain. "

A herd of around 200 goats eats and wanders on the steep hills off Los Angeles, fertilizing the soil at the same time.

57-year-old Johnny Gonzales has been in the goat business for 23 years - a total of 1,600 of his animals help with fire protection across the state of California.

Johnny Gonzales, Environmental Land Management

“Goats are like a fire without a flame.

They leave all the important substances in the plants for the soil here and regenerate the plants. "

The goal of goat clearing is to create a natural firebreak so that a wildfire is stopped before it reaches the nearby community.

The use of goats to remove combustible, dead grass is not new, but due to the devastating fires in recent years, more and more authorities and communities are looking for such preventive solutions.

Johnny Gonzales, Environmental Land Management

“We treat these open areas, which are part of a community, because from this hill the fires from the hinterland are carried by the wind to us, so the embers arrive.

Now this won't burn.

Otherwise the fire would jump over, and that's how it gets into the communities. "

The average cost of the goats is between $ 800 and $ 1,000 for a good 4,000 square meters.

But even if the animals are an important help: It is to be hoped that both humans and goats will be needed significantly less in the future to prevent fire disasters.