Wednesday, August 6, 2025

La Cañada Flintridge Enlists Goats, Sheep for Wildfire Prevention

CITY NEWS SERVICE

La Cañada Flintridge is planning to use an animal-style approach to prevent wildfires in part of the mountainside community, city officials said Tuesday.

With funding from Cal Fire’s Wildfire Prevention Grant Program, the city is “reintroducing one of nature’s oldest vegetation management tools: grazing animals.”

Animal grazing, particularly by goats and cattle, can be an effective method for wildfire prevention by reducing the amount of dry vegetation that can serve as fuel for a fire. Grazing livestock consume grasses and shrubs, creating natural firebreaks and areas with less dense vegetation, which can slow down fire spread.

Different grazing animals have different preferences for vegetation. Goats, for example, are known for their ability to consume woody browse and climb to reach higher vegetation, making them effective at removing “ladder fuels” that can carry fire from the ground to tree canopies.

Sheep graze on grass, clovers and broad leaf plants.

The announcement comes eight months after the Eaton Fire devastated large swaths of in Altadena and parts of in Pasadena.

The hungry goats and sheep will head up an effort to reduce wildfire risk across a nearly 60-acre expanse of city-owned land in the Gould Canyon area.

“As a key component of the city’s broader wildfire mitigation strategy, this project involves the use of goats and sheep to manage vegetation in the Wildland Urban Interface, the area where homes meet undeveloped, brush- heavy terrain,” according to a city statement. “Grazing provides a low- impact, environmentally responsible method of reducing fuel loads, creating defensible space and supporting long-term community safety.”

The city is working with the Los Angeles County Fire Department on its wildfire prevention efforts.