「ヤギの手」借りて山火事対策　米カリフォルニア

【グレンデールＡＦＰ＝時事】現場に派遣されたチームに与えられた任務は「草を食べろ」。それだけだ。米カリフォルニア州では、毎年発生する山火事に立ち向かう武器としてヤギが人気を集めている。（写真は米カリフォルニア州グレンデールで草などの植物を食べるヤギ）
　７月の暑い朝、ロサンゼルス郊外グレンデールの丘陵地でヤギ８０頭が一帯の草を食べていた。乾燥した草に火が付くと周囲の住宅に延焼する恐れがあるため、これも大切な除草作業の一環となる。
　ヤギたちの活動は極めて重要なものになってきている。昨年カリフォルニア州で発生した山火事は近年最悪の規模となり、広大な土地が焼失した。
　気候変動や干ばつの影響で、大規模な山火事が数か月間続く事態が常態化しているのではと、当局は懸念を示す。そのような状況のなか、役に立つものは何でも歓迎されるのだ。
　グレンデールのジェフリー・ラグーサ消防署長は、「調べてみればみるほど、ヤギ（の導入）がいかに効果的で環境に優しいかが分かった」と話す。
　ヤギの旺盛な食欲は二つの目的を果たしてくれる。ラグーサ氏によると、引火しやすい草をヤギが食べることで山火事の広がりが抑えられ、また消防隊員が活動しやすい通路もできるという。
　人が行う作業の負担を減らしてくれるという意味でも、ヤギの助けは有益だ。山火事が発生しやすい季節になる前とその最中に、当局は人を使って燃えやすい草木を取り除き、火事が拡大しないよう緩衝地帯を設けているが、その多くは手作業で、炎天下に険しい地形で行わなければならない。また山火事が多発する期間も以前より長くなっている。
　ラグーサ氏は、「作業員がけがをする危険性は常にある」と話し、「でも、まだヤギがつまずいて転んだところは見たことがない」と笑顔で続けた。
　しかし、ヤギは放っておくと何でも食べてしまうので、この戦略にはリスクも伴う。
　「ヤギの動きには絶えず目を配っている」と、グレンデールにヤギを派遣したセージ・エンバイロンメンタル・グループの創業者、アリッサ・コープ氏は話す。同社は、動植物の生息環境の回復や環境計画を専門としている。
　「過放牧（草地の再生能力を超えた家畜の放牧）はヤギを導入する際に見られがちなマイナス面だが、そうした問題が起きていると思える場所があればヤギを移動させる」と述べ、電気柵の使用や干し草で誘う方法を例に挙げた。
　同社は、ヤギがこうした作業でどれくらいのお金を稼いでいるかは明らかにしていないが、ヤギの派遣費用は、当局が人間の作業員に支払う金額と同程度で、さらに環境への負荷はより少ないとしている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】

〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/07/14-13:43）

Their mission, should they choose to accept it, is simple: graze.
Goats are an unlikely but increasingly popular weapon in California's fight against the wildfires that rage through the western US state every year.
On a recent hot July morning, a herd of 80 ungulates were deployed to a hilly patch of land in Glendale, just outside Los Angeles.
They had been chomping away for the past 10 days or so, helping to clear away bone-dry vegetation that could go up in flames and threaten the surrounding homes.
Their work comes up a vital time. Last year was the worst in California's modern history for wildfires, with more than four million acres (1.6 million hectares) scorched.
Due to climate change and a brutal drought, officials fear that months of massive infernos are now the norm.
So any help is welcome.
We started hearing a lot about goats, both from community members, other fire departments, other cities, said Glendale fire marshal Jeffrey Ragusa.
And the more we looked into it, the more we realized how effective they can be, how environmentally friendly they can be.
- Corridor -
The goats' voracious appetite serves two purposes.
Eating easily flammable vegetation helps to restrict the spread of fire, and also creates a convenient corridor in which firefighters can operate to protect the homes in a safer environment should the need arise, said Ragusa.
Of course, the animals are just one small part of the strategy for coping with the threat of fires.
But their help can be valuable, lightening the workload for overstretched human contractors who create buffer zones by removing vegetation -- often manually, in sweltering heat and difficult terrain -- before and during ever-longer fire seasons.
There's always a threat of injury to personnel, said Ragusa.
I haven't seen a goat trip yet, he added with a smile.
The goats grazing in Glendale are brought in by Sage Environmental Group, a company that carries out habitat restoration and environmental planning.
Its founder, Alissa Cope, began incorporating goats into her work five years ago, and now owns around 400 of the animals.
- 'Watch them closely' -
The strategy carries an inherent risk -- goats, if left to their own devices, will munch anything in their path.
We watch them closely, she said. If there's an area that we feel that they're overgrazing -- which is essentially the downside of using goats -- we will deliberately move them, using electric fences or luring them with hay.
Without revealing how much the goats earn for their labor, Cope says the cost of employing the animals is comparable to what authorities would pay for human workers -- at a lower environmental toll.
The company runs similar projects elsewhere in California, including nearby Anaheim and South Pasadena.
The idea to bring in goats to Glendale originated with Rick Stern, a member of the neighborhood homeowners association.
Stern heard of the strategy when his wife found out goats had helped keep the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library -- also in southern California -- safe from fire in 2019.
Months before the devastating blaze, a trip of goats had been dispatched to create a fire break around the famous complex.
While the goats' presence in Glendale is just a pilot program for now, it will be evaluated with a view to broader use.
So far, it's been a really good program, said Ragusa. We've been really happy with the results.