How A Herd Of Goats Is Helping Protect San Francisco From Wildfires

SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco is a city known for its fine dining, and this spring, even the land itself is on the menu.

A herd of goats has been let loose on the city's fields and hillsides to chew away at the lush grass that sprouted during an unusually wet winter. In the summer, that grass can become dry and brown, turning into fuel for wildfires.

Genevieve Church, the executive director of City Grazing and the self-described "most glorified goatherd on the planet," told CBS News that her non-profit takes a herd of 128 goats all over San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area to limit the fire hazard. City Grazing runs the goat grazing program and coordinates with local groups.

In addition to chomping down on all the grass they can reach, the goats also serve an educational purpose. At Malcolm X. Academy, an elementary school, they provide an important lesson is sustainability, said San Francisco Unified School District landscape manager Rebecca Pollon. About 25 goats are eating grass near the school. It takes them about a week to clear the area.

"The students get to come out here and see this, and it's a really tangible example of what we do and why we do it," Pollon said. "It's a really circular ecology. The goats eat the grass and they digest the grass, and their waste is really great for the soil, which helps with erosion. So over the long term, instead of slowly degrading the land, we're regenerating the land."

The opportunity to spend time with wild animals is one kids in the school don't often get, school social worker Sarah Aldama said. The average student in the school comes from a low-income family, Aldama said, and the children are usually born and raised in multigenerational families in the community. There can be trouble with attendance and consistency, but having the goats in the yard can help with that problem, if only for a few days.

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