More fire season prep work starts in Fresno County mountains. Meet the goats doing it

In 2021, Southern California Edison added a new tool to the fire prevention and vegetation management arsenal it uses in the foothills and mountains of Fresno County.

It was a whole herd of them, actually.

That year, the power company launched a pilot program that brought in 403 goats to eat their way through 15 acres of vegetation near transmission and distribution lines near the Big Creek Hydroelectric plant and Balsam Forebay above Shaver Lake off Highway 168.

The goats were released Tuesday and will spend the next few weeks grazing through the area, at a rate of one to two acres each day.

“Goats are one of the top” alternatives to traditional options for clearing land around power lines, such as people with heavy equipment and chainsaws, said Brian Sprinkle, a transmission and distribution vegetation manager for SCE.

“They’re more sustainable; they have less impact to the environment,” he said. “And from a sociological perspective, people can get behind goats.”

The goats consume two to four pounds of vegetation daily and do so in a way that reduces ground disturbance you’d find with manual land-clearing methods like heavy machinery. They are also adept at traveling rough terrain, that could be difficult to otherwise access.

“They’re perfectly designed to go through really rough, rugged terrain,” Sprinkle said. “They really enjoy these type of environments.

As a bonus, the animals poop nutrients back into the soil.

The goats are owned by Chasin Goat Grazing, a company out of Sonoma County that specializes in goat-grazing services for home owners and public and private sector companies.

Livestock herders and dogs stay with the goats to keep them safe from wild animals in the area and make sure they stay in specific areas, which are designated by mobile fencing.