Goats Helped To Save The Reagan Presidential Library

Hero Herd

The raging wildfires causing havoc and destroying homes in California nearly burned down the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library last week, Reuters reported.

Luckily, firefighters saved the library, but they had some help from a group of unsung heroes that contributed to the operation: goats.

A herd of 500 goats munched through flammable brush surrounding the library earlier this year to create firebreak that slowed the blaze and let the firefighters douse the flames.

“We were told by one of the firefighters that they believe that firebreak made their job easier,” said library spokeswoman Melissa Giller. The brush didn’t reach the library, she said, “because the goats ate it all.”

Due to risk of fire, the Reagan Library Foundation hired the herd of Boer goats in May from a local company to clear around 13 acres of scrub.

This is not the first time that goats have been used to curb wildfires.

In Portugal, the government hired goats as an environmentally friendly method to combat wildfires in remote areas where bulldozers can’t reach, Agence France-Presse reported.

“Goats have been used for centuries for this,” said conservationist Antonio Ferreira Borges. “It is a natural way to control the vegetation.”

And with wildfires spreading in other parts of the world, goats might be a sensible alternative to chemicals.