Walk with me
Walks are very entertaining where I live. I live in Southern California. California is also known as The Golden State. Golden is not a reference to the 1849 Gold Rush but to the color of the landscape in summer. Spring brings beautiful lush green grass to hillsides. The heat of the summer dries out the grass and it becomes a golden color. This dry grass is a fire hazard to nearby homes so weed abatement is done. Sometimes, people use weedwackers to cut the grass but the mown grass is slow to breakdown so it remains fuel for fires.
Recently, another way of managing the dry grass has emerged. Ranchers have created an abatement service and offer contracts to homeowners associations to clear the unbuilt land between homes built on hillsides.
We have this service in our neighborhood. The ranchers bring a herd of voracious goats who happily clear the heavy brush to reduce the fire danger to create a defensible space for homes.
The goats are tended by a Shepard and a working herd dog. We spoke with the Shepard one year and found out the dog does not herd the goats but is there to roust predators like coyotes and rattle snakes from the herd. Temporary fencing is put up to contain the herd and the fencing is moved as they clear an area. It is a quiet and very effective service and no fuel is left on the ground except a short stubble of grass.
I like it! What a planet friendly way to protect your neighborhood! Farmers and ranchers were the first conservationists, having learned hard lessons in the dust bowl years. I remember my uncle (a farmer) talking a good deal with his neighbors about what they read regarding stopping erosion, etc.
ReplyDeleteI never knew that about the Golden State. I always assumed it was because of the gold rush. What a great eco-friendly way to trim the grass. I have been reading about the wildfires out west. So terrible. Hope you are well out of harm's way.
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting history lesson about California. Thanks for the virtual walk.
ReplyDeleteStay safe.
Great use for keeping down the fire danger. Here they do burn offs in Summer ? and damage the ecosystem and kill the animals and birds ? !!! Filling the cities with smoke !!
ReplyDeleteI wonder if they are hesitant to use goats where you are, for an environmental reason we’re unaware of? Like being afraid of repeating the cane toad mistake? Of all the places I’ve been, NZ and Oz have been the most stringent about not accidentally importing biological materials. Well, other than Antarctica, of course, where the whole continent is protected...
DeleteFun goat pictures, and post!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing! In some places in the world sheep are used as “lawnmowers.” But goats are ideal for hilly terrain and they are less picky about what they eat. So they’re perfect for what you describe! I imagine the biggest challenge is containing them - goats are notorious escape artists. 😂
Growing up in northern CA I enjoyed watching the grassy hills change color. An interesting thing about those grasses is that they are not native; they arrived with the Conquistadors and spread, crowding out the native plants. Now one of the few places you can see large swaths of native grasses is where there are outcroppings of serpentine rock. (The native grasses and flowers have evolved to grow in such poor soil, while the invasive European grasses can’t manage)
I’ve heard variously that the nickname was about the fields of yellow poppies and/or the discovery of gold driving its development, and/or about the hills covered with invasive grasses. The website for the state library suggests the metal and the poppies. I wonder if anyone really knows - there may be multiple explanations out there?
Great post and did learn a lot. I, too, thought it was because of the gold rush. Then, again, we had a friend who got people to believe that Canada was pink of the maps because of the colour the sun turned the ice when it set, then they come for a visit in July expecting ice and snow and of course it is hot, hazy and humid like everywhere else.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the information! Wonderful fire abatement plans!
ReplyDeleteHugs
barb
1crazydog