Palo Alto Goats

From the City of Palo Alto-If you visited Open Space last week you probably saw herds of goats grazing
in selective areas. Goats are back in the Pearson-Arastradero Preserve for
the second year in an area just off Arastradero Road. The site has been
carefully selected to reduce nonnative
or exotic weeds on the
preserve and allow the native
plants to thrive.
In Foothills Park, the goats are
being used for the first time to
reduce the fire danger in the park�s
Towle Campground and in two
hillside picnic areas. By allowing the
goats to concentrate in these areas,
they eat a lot of vegetation and
reduce �ladder fuels� or lower
branches on brush and trees that surround these popular areas of the park,
which will ultimately ease the fire danger this summer. The goats accomplish
in hours what would take days for staff to do by hand or with weed whips.