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California Town Hires 500 Goats
Yahoo! ^
| Thursday, July 31, 2003
| The Associated Press
Posted on 07/31/2003 6:51:29 PM PDT by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
MILL VALLEY, Calif. - Mill Valley's newest 500 employees work cheap, start early, stay late and never gripe about where their office is located.
That's because the employees are all goats.
Mill Valley hired the four-legged firefighters to gobble up tinder-dry brush and grass on four acres at the Edgewood Reservoir.
"These are working goats," said Fire Battalion Chief Greg Moore, lauding the herd that went to work Tuesday. "They are environmentally friendly."
The black, white and brown spotted goats will take 21 days to 30 days to eat the area clear of French broom, acacia, blackberry and dry grass that are a combustible fire hazard.
Moore, who runs the Vegetation Management Program, said different methods have been used to reduce the threat of fire. The goats are being tried for the first time, in part because they don't produce any air pollution.
The last two years the department did controlled burns.
"I believe a prescribed burn is the least expensive and good for the soil," said Moore. "But in this location, the goats were the best alternative."
The service, provided by Living Systems Land Management of Santa Cruz, will cost $4,000 to $5,000 depending on how long the goats stay and how much they eat.
TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; US: California
KEYWORDS: axisofeeyore; globalism; thebusheconomy
To: Ernest_at_the_Beach; mhking
ping
To: Willie Green
"These are working goats,"
... "That have taken up the call to retrain themselves. No longer do they just give up their hair and milk for us, but now they are fighting forest fires."
3
posted on
07/31/2003 6:54:55 PM PDT
by
lelio
To: Willie Green
What the heck is this guy smoking? 4 acres, and 500 goats?
Desert in twenty minutes.
Idiots.
4
posted on
07/31/2003 6:55:21 PM PDT
by
patton
(I wish we could all look at the evil of abortion with the pure, honest heart of a child.)
To: lelio
Goats will chomp their way through anything.
5
posted on
07/31/2003 6:55:46 PM PDT
by
goldstategop
(In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
To: Willie Green
...Because the Clintons moved in?
To: Howlin; Ed_NYC; MonroeDNA; widgysoft; Springman; Timesink; dubyaismypresident; Grani; coug97; ...
You beat me to it...
Just damn.
If you want on the new list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...
7
posted on
07/31/2003 7:00:33 PM PDT
by
mhking
To: Willie Green
Are they 'Union' goats?
To: rockfish59
They do work without being asked and they never tire. Would that we had humans who were as model government employees as the goats.
9
posted on
07/31/2003 7:06:18 PM PDT
by
goldstategop
(In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
To: rockfish59
If they are Union Goats they will eventually price themselves out of their jobs and be replaced by Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs that will work for less money and with no OSHA and wage protections.
10
posted on
07/31/2003 7:09:12 PM PDT
by
azcap
To: patton
4 acres, and 500 goats? Desert in twenty minutes.
Yup. Serious overgrazing. 4-5 goats per acre is plenty, if you're patient. We used to have goats living on either side of our house, and one goat was sufficient to keep about 1/2 acre of kudzu down. You simply put the goat in a harness on a dog run, and swing the dog run in a circle as the goat gobbles the kudzu.
You also have to think that once 500 goats have their way with this place, they're going to have a serious erosion problem. They will tear the plants out and eat the roots.
11
posted on
07/31/2003 7:09:51 PM PDT
by
AnAmericanMother
(. . . there is nothing new under the sun.)
To: Willie Green
"These are working goats," said Fire Battalion Chief Greg Moore, lauding the herd that went to work Tuesday. "They are environmentally friendly." SS. Do goats not crap?
If so how do they figure that goat crap is FRIENDLY to a reservoir?
To: AnAmericanMother
500 goats on four acres = slightly less than 350 square feet per goat. Serious overgrazing is an English level of understatement.
A good aspect is that the goats seem to like poison ivy, and at that density there will be no poison ivy left.
GO, GOATS!
13
posted on
07/31/2003 10:12:14 PM PDT
by
GladesGuru
(In a society predicated upon liberty, it is essential to examine principles - -)
To: goldstategop
Yep! I saw a guy in Hayward, CA use them on the school property.
They never missed a beat.....or a weed! =^)
To: azcap
I think pot-bellied pigs would join the Teamsters! =^)
To: sausageseller
Of course goats "go". But (assuming Goat is correctly fed) goat byproducts come in neat little dry pellets. Easy to sweep up, if that's what you want to do.
But you're right, FIVE HUNDRED FREAKING GOATS is going to produce a lot of byproduct. What with root damage, soil damage, erosion and goat poo, they are definitely going to have a crud-in-the-reservoir problem. Yuk.
16
posted on
08/01/2003 4:22:21 AM PDT
by
AnAmericanMother
(. . . there is nothing new under the sun.)
To: sausageseller
>>>If so how do they figure that goat crap is FRIENDLY to a reservoir?
Um....fertilizer?
17
posted on
08/01/2003 6:27:25 AM PDT
by
4mycountry
(Over-achiever extraordinare!)
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