Charlotte's Goats vs Fire
Donation protected
Wildfires have been destructive and devastating here in Northern California.
The 2017 Tubbs Fires started about one mile from our town and fortunately for us was blown away from us by extreme winds. For many more people it was a disaster or deadly. Over 5,000 homes burned in that fire, some belonging to people I’ve known for thirty-five years.
The 2020 Glass Fire came to within 100 yards of our house. Once again we lucked out – this time due to the hard work of many firefighters. Our town was saved even as our many neighbors in the hills nearby suffered terrible losses.
Wildfires are getting closer and I want to be proactive. The time to reduce fire fuel loads in the surrounding hills, in all of the dry western states, is now. Not by cutting down forests or prescribed burns that release more carbon into the atmosphere, but by grazing goats through the brush – the stuff that becomes tinder for fire when it’s hot, dry and windy.
I believe that prescribed burns should come after the excess brush and grass is grazed over by livestock.
I can’t stop the wind, the low humidity or the heat that dry up all vegetation no matter how much it rains in the winter and spring, but I can move a herd of goats through those forests and chaparral, eating as they go, reducing potential tinder.
I’m starting this goat grazing business out of a desire to serve the world and fix the problem of out of control wildfire. This business can be a model for how communities can use grazing herds to protect themselves and reduce the danger for our wildland firefighters.
Goats, especially certain breeds, are natural brush eaters. They eat the stuff that becomes tinder for wildfires. When managed well they eat the troublesome stuff and leave the mature trees and native plants to thrive. They can be part of a healthy way to manage forests, chaparral and rangeland.
The concept of Regenerative Ag is how I got to the idea of goat grazing.
Regenerative Agriculture acts like this: the goats eat brush then they create manure, fertilizing as they eat, adding to the microbiology of the soil while cultivating the soil with their hooves as they are herded along from one area of brush to another.
In late fall or winter or spring when the rain falls, it soaks into the fertilized, cultivated and receptive soil. Rainwater is absorbed by the roots of the remaining plants and trees which keep them better hydrated and more resistant to fire during the next hot summer and fall.
The carbon in the brush has been put back into the soil via decomposing manure, instead of released into the atmosphere via fire.
Grazing with domestic livestock, if done properly, replicates the actions of the historical herds of ungulates that used to move across our landscapes; elk, deer, bison and antelope. Wolves, bear, mountain lion, bobcats, coyotes kept those herds moving so they didn’t deforest or destroy the soil structure to the point of erosion.
Human activity has interrupted that natural regenerative cycle between land, weather, plants and animals. We can restore that cycle.
The second part of what I plan to do is use San Clemente Island goats. They are a rare, critically endangered breed. Removed from of one of the Channel Islands by the Navy in the 1970s they are of an undetermined genetic source and natural brush eaters, closer to wild animals than other more domesticated breeds of goats.
Starting with a smallish herd I will learn how to secure and increase the breed with careful breeding, encouraging hardiness by providing them a more natural and complete diet – the brush in these hillsides – with supplements when needed. They will be bred for health and hardiness – not for meat.
The goats need the help of humans and livestock guardian dogs to protect them from their predators – coyotes, bobcats, mountain lions and bears, and goat rustlers in this part of the world.
Check out matchgraze.com to see the growing interest in what I’m proposing. It includes owners of private and public lands and owners of various grazing herds.
The money is being raised for these things in about this order:
Used four-wheel drive truck 25,000 ($9,000 actual)
Used 20’ livestock trailer 15,000 ($5,900 actual)
Insurance (liability 1,300 and truck/trailer 3,100) 4,700
200 yds portable electric fencing, panels, solar charger, battery 1,380
29 San Clemente Island does @ $350 each 10,150
1 SCI buck @ $750 750
Water tank 120
Water troughs 150
2 Livestock guardian dogs (or one adult and 2 puppies) 2,000
Ear tags; 30 @ $25 each 750
A small travel trailer, used 5,000
TOTAL 65,000 (subtract $25,100 for actual costs of truck and trailer) = $39,900
I’m doing a GoFundMe because I have no collateral for a bank loan, even though my credit is in the 800s.
I’m the mother of three children, now adults. That’s been my main focus for 29 of the past 37 years.
I’ve worked many jobs over those years; office, hospitality, landscaping, retail, ranch hand, apartment manager, seamstress, personal assistant and care-giver. My last work was as a tai chi instructor at the nearby Veterans Home until the COVID-19 arrived.
I’ve also volunteered for many years; feet-on-the-street and committee work with political campaigns (my own and for other candidates and ballot measures), leading environmental groups, in school classrooms and sports teams, host parent and area rep for an international student organization and on many community projects and events. Currently I’m coordinating two food distributions.
During the past year, I’ve been helping at a friend’s ranch with dairy goats, donkeys and livestock guardian dogs, as well as with a goat grazer and his herd of several hundred goats.
Now, I am determined to take action to help restore balance to this planet.
I am applying for government and private foundation grants but those will take a while to complete and hear back. And there’s no guarantee I’ll receive any grants.
In California there are government programs (NRCS, FEMA, etc.) to fund landowners to protect their land, but the grant programs directly funding grazing services as I propose are complicated and have delayed funding cycles.
In the meantime -- while I work on grants, study the art and science of herding and goat care, and figure logistics -- the brush is growing thicker. More than likely it will be another hot, dry, windy spring, summer and fall here on the West Coast. All primed for more out-of-control wildfires.
The sooner I start with the goats the sooner I’ll learn how to manage and care for them while they work to reduce fire hazards.
I will be in nature, in a type of solitude with the goats and the dogs. While they are working to protect us from fire, I am caring for them. I am committed to their well-being; making sure they have good nutrition and are protected.
I am the goatherd on the hill, already there in mind and spirit. Now the goats, truck, trailer, fencing, dogs, etc. need to show up!
Thank you for reading this far! Thank you for your help! It’s an unusual project and it will work!
Charlotte Williams
instagram: goatsvsfire
The 2017 Tubbs Fires started about one mile from our town and fortunately for us was blown away from us by extreme winds. For many more people it was a disaster or deadly. Over 5,000 homes burned in that fire, some belonging to people I’ve known for thirty-five years.
The 2020 Glass Fire came to within 100 yards of our house. Once again we lucked out – this time due to the hard work of many firefighters. Our town was saved even as our many neighbors in the hills nearby suffered terrible losses.
Wildfires are getting closer and I want to be proactive. The time to reduce fire fuel loads in the surrounding hills, in all of the dry western states, is now. Not by cutting down forests or prescribed burns that release more carbon into the atmosphere, but by grazing goats through the brush – the stuff that becomes tinder for fire when it’s hot, dry and windy.
I believe that prescribed burns should come after the excess brush and grass is grazed over by livestock.
I can’t stop the wind, the low humidity or the heat that dry up all vegetation no matter how much it rains in the winter and spring, but I can move a herd of goats through those forests and chaparral, eating as they go, reducing potential tinder.
I’m starting this goat grazing business out of a desire to serve the world and fix the problem of out of control wildfire. This business can be a model for how communities can use grazing herds to protect themselves and reduce the danger for our wildland firefighters.
Goats, especially certain breeds, are natural brush eaters. They eat the stuff that becomes tinder for wildfires. When managed well they eat the troublesome stuff and leave the mature trees and native plants to thrive. They can be part of a healthy way to manage forests, chaparral and rangeland.
The concept of Regenerative Ag is how I got to the idea of goat grazing.
Regenerative Agriculture acts like this: the goats eat brush then they create manure, fertilizing as they eat, adding to the microbiology of the soil while cultivating the soil with their hooves as they are herded along from one area of brush to another.
In late fall or winter or spring when the rain falls, it soaks into the fertilized, cultivated and receptive soil. Rainwater is absorbed by the roots of the remaining plants and trees which keep them better hydrated and more resistant to fire during the next hot summer and fall.
The carbon in the brush has been put back into the soil via decomposing manure, instead of released into the atmosphere via fire.
Grazing with domestic livestock, if done properly, replicates the actions of the historical herds of ungulates that used to move across our landscapes; elk, deer, bison and antelope. Wolves, bear, mountain lion, bobcats, coyotes kept those herds moving so they didn’t deforest or destroy the soil structure to the point of erosion.
Human activity has interrupted that natural regenerative cycle between land, weather, plants and animals. We can restore that cycle.
The second part of what I plan to do is use San Clemente Island goats. They are a rare, critically endangered breed. Removed from of one of the Channel Islands by the Navy in the 1970s they are of an undetermined genetic source and natural brush eaters, closer to wild animals than other more domesticated breeds of goats.
Starting with a smallish herd I will learn how to secure and increase the breed with careful breeding, encouraging hardiness by providing them a more natural and complete diet – the brush in these hillsides – with supplements when needed. They will be bred for health and hardiness – not for meat.
The goats need the help of humans and livestock guardian dogs to protect them from their predators – coyotes, bobcats, mountain lions and bears, and goat rustlers in this part of the world.
Check out matchgraze.com to see the growing interest in what I’m proposing. It includes owners of private and public lands and owners of various grazing herds.
The money is being raised for these things in about this order:
Used four-wheel drive truck 25,000 ($9,000 actual)
Used 20’ livestock trailer 15,000 ($5,900 actual)
Insurance (liability 1,300 and truck/trailer 3,100) 4,700
200 yds portable electric fencing, panels, solar charger, battery 1,380
29 San Clemente Island does @ $350 each 10,150
1 SCI buck @ $750 750
Water tank 120
Water troughs 150
2 Livestock guardian dogs (or one adult and 2 puppies) 2,000
Ear tags; 30 @ $25 each 750
A small travel trailer, used 5,000
TOTAL 65,000 (subtract $25,100 for actual costs of truck and trailer) = $39,900
I’m doing a GoFundMe because I have no collateral for a bank loan, even though my credit is in the 800s.
I’m the mother of three children, now adults. That’s been my main focus for 29 of the past 37 years.
I’ve worked many jobs over those years; office, hospitality, landscaping, retail, ranch hand, apartment manager, seamstress, personal assistant and care-giver. My last work was as a tai chi instructor at the nearby Veterans Home until the COVID-19 arrived.
I’ve also volunteered for many years; feet-on-the-street and committee work with political campaigns (my own and for other candidates and ballot measures), leading environmental groups, in school classrooms and sports teams, host parent and area rep for an international student organization and on many community projects and events. Currently I’m coordinating two food distributions.
During the past year, I’ve been helping at a friend’s ranch with dairy goats, donkeys and livestock guardian dogs, as well as with a goat grazer and his herd of several hundred goats.
Now, I am determined to take action to help restore balance to this planet.
I am applying for government and private foundation grants but those will take a while to complete and hear back. And there’s no guarantee I’ll receive any grants.
In California there are government programs (NRCS, FEMA, etc.) to fund landowners to protect their land, but the grant programs directly funding grazing services as I propose are complicated and have delayed funding cycles.
In the meantime -- while I work on grants, study the art and science of herding and goat care, and figure logistics -- the brush is growing thicker. More than likely it will be another hot, dry, windy spring, summer and fall here on the West Coast. All primed for more out-of-control wildfires.
The sooner I start with the goats the sooner I’ll learn how to manage and care for them while they work to reduce fire hazards.
I will be in nature, in a type of solitude with the goats and the dogs. While they are working to protect us from fire, I am caring for them. I am committed to their well-being; making sure they have good nutrition and are protected.
I am the goatherd on the hill, already there in mind and spirit. Now the goats, truck, trailer, fencing, dogs, etc. need to show up!
Thank you for reading this far! Thank you for your help! It’s an unusual project and it will work!
Charlotte Williams
instagram: goatsvsfire
Organiser
Charlotte Helen Williams
Organiser
Calistoga, CA
