Ralph Tovar drives his fire truck up the San Bernardino mountains*. It’s a breezy, sunny day. The hills are bright green, filled with new growth from the spring rain.
(*Correction: Original airing stated Lake Arrowhead Mountains)
TOVAR: They [goats] work there, and across, up around that little knob up top, and now they’re working down…
Tovar is the assistant fire chief for the San Manuel Fire Department.
He says the tribe uses the goats to mitigate risks of wildfires, while preserving the land at highest risk of catching fire.
On the steep hills, a herd of goats graze the new growth on the reservation.
More than 400 goats have been deployed by the tribe. A shepherd herds them across the reservation and parts of the Inland Empire.
He points to another hill across from him.
TOVER: This is where they'll work, eating the light grass. This mustard grass that grows every year, reducing all that stuff, and they'll strategically work down. They'll get pinned up at night, and then they'll work again the next day, and they'll move around throughout the next couple days, working their way up that ridge and across"
Tovar says the tribe has been using the goats for 7 years.
One of the herds of goats is out on the mountainside… right above a neighborhood at the bottom of the hill.
Doug Wheeler has lived there for 67 years.
He says he’s lived through some major fires, like the 2003 Old Fire that burned some 90 thousand acres.
WHEELER: The old fire really put me off. I wouldn't want to do that ever again, because I literally stood there and was battling the fire right next door.
Wheeler says the goats are helping, but he’s skeptical they’ll totally prevent wildfires.
WHEELER: It's not going to say that this is going to fix the problem, but it's given a little peace of mind stating the fact that it's, you know, it helps a little bit to think that, well, maybe this is going to help us a little bit, and we hope it does help a little bit.
[Foot Crunch Ambi]
Last year, the Foothill Fire* burned some 5 acres through this area. There’s remnants of burned trees nearby.
(*Correction: Original airing stated Line Fire)
But the fire stopped at the edge of where the goats grazed last year.
Tovar, the assistant fire chief, says the goats aren’t the only solution for slowing fires but….
TOVER: The fire burned to where the goats had worked, and gave the chance for the firefighters to get in there and fully extinguish the fire.
Tovar says the goats did help contain the fires.
And they’ll continue to, as they graze their way across some 1000 acres of mountains for the next few months.