GRAZERS EYED FOR BRUSH CLEARANCE.

Byline: Lee Condon Daily News Staff Writer

Goats might not be as big and strong as firefighters or brush-clearing crews, but Los Angeles County is hoping the omnivores will be the next, best warriors in the battle against wildfires.

County fire officials are set to ask the Board of Supervisors next month for permission to hire the first herd of goats to munch away at hillside grass and brush.

A test herd would go to work first in Malibu and Claremont and could be expanded to hillsides throughout the county if they live up to their billing.

The county's proposal copies a popular project in Laguna Beach, which like Malibu was hit hard by wildfires in 1993.

``The goats are extremely popular. The residents love them,'' said Michael Phillips, the fire prevention specialist in charge of the goat program for the Laguna Beach Fire Department.

``People will call up if the goats haven't been behind their house by the start of fire season. They start yelling at me, Where the hell are the goats? Why aren't they eating faster?

``They can really reach for the brush. There are some areas where you get couldn't get to with machines or people,'' Phillips said.

Goats are more efficient than hand crews and machinery now used, said Herbert Spitzer, assistant chief of the Los Angeles County Fire Department's forestry division.

``The goats clear the brush and dispose of it all at once,'' Spitzer said.

Humans and machines must cut back brush, and then the trimmings must be cleared. Goats cause less physical damage to the hillsides, meaning less possible erosion of the soil, he said.

In Laguna Beach, the herd of 700 goats travels the length of the coastal city all year, eating 1,445 acres of brush. The city pays $191,999 a year for goats and herders.

Lest anyone think there are better critters for the job, Phillips said cattle are simply too big to handle and sheep have a tendency of ripping vegetation out of the ground, which could contribute to the erosion of hillsides.

Spitzer said he has seen sheep used to eat brush on private hillsides in Calabasas and said cattle are used on some private hillsides near Claremont and Whittier.

Phillips said the goats were first used by Laguna Beach in selected areas in 1991. After a 1993 wildfire ripped through areas not cleared by the goats and destroyed 366 homes, the program was expanded citywide. While officials there believe the goats have helped reduce the volume of burnable brush, the city has not had any major wildfires since the goat program was expanded.

Los Angeles County Fire Department officials hope to have several hundred goats on the job by next spring.

They would munch a 300-foot wide ``fuel break'' across 200 acres of the Etz Ridge Meloy Fire Mountainway between Westlake Village and Malibu near the border of Ventura County.

The goats would be penned in by a five-foot-high, portable fiberglass fence designed to keep them from wandering off and to protect them from mountain lions and coyotes, Spitzer said.

The budget for the project is $191,000, paid for by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Spitzer said the goats are part of the department's efforts to come up with new and creative ways to prevent brush fires.

Also this spring they hope to introduce a new device called the ``brush crusher,'' a 14-foot-wide, 10-ton cylinder that would be rolled down hillsides to compact tall brush, making it easier to burn off or clear.

Goats and brush crushers can never completely replace the department's other brush clearing strategies and they likely would be used in conjunction with hand crews, bulldozers, chippers and controlled burns, Spitzer said.

Still, Laguna Beach has been able to use goats at a cost of about $137 per acre, compared to the $1,500-per-acre cost of hand crews, and the $300-per-acre cost of controlled burns and machines. Los Angeles County also uses inmates to clear brush at a cost of $500 an hour for a 14-person team.

Fire officials still are seeking environmental clearance for the project and will have to get the Board of Supervisors' approval for putting the project out to bid to interested herders. They also have had to get clearance from residents living nearby.

Laguna Beach residents have taken to the goats, Phillips said.

``They are very friendly and pretty social. They kind of move away from you when you first see them. But then they kind of follow you around,'' Phillips said.

``They expect to be petted.''

CAPTION(S):

photo, box

Photo: no caption (herd of goats on suburban hillside)

Photo by Branimir Kvartuc/Orange County Register

Box: Good goats

Graphic by Jon Gerung/Daily News