Turns out goats and sheep make for pretty decent wildfire control.
By Zachy Hennessey, ISRAEL21c
As California battles devastating wildfires that have claimed lives and forced evacuations, Israel continues to pioneer inventive approaches to fire prevention – including an army of woolly warriors that’s transforming the landscape one bite at a time.
Israel is a region that’s no stranger to wildfires (especially when the weather is particularly missile-y). While the country has produced a bevy of solutions to that problem, perhaps the most interesting solution is the herds of thousands of goats, sheep and antelopes that have been strategically deployed to Israel’s forests, fields and army bases.
These animals tackle dense undergrowth and munch on low-hanging branches; a form of natural pruning that creates crucial firebreaks, making it harder for flames to spread from the ground to the treetops.
As of today, over 50,000 animals have been deployed throughout Israel to serve as anti-wildfire vegetation management.
While conventional fire prevention often relies on mechanical clearing and chemical treatments, these four-legged firefighters provide a sustainable alternative that benefits both the environment and local agriculture.
“The goal is to create buffer lines and thereby reduce the combustible materials that endanger forest areas during a fire,” explains Ilan Tibi, director of the KKL-JNF Grazing Unit.
“Several years ago, a grazing unit was established that operates in cooperation with farmers and [shepherds] who, in a planned manner, move herds of herbivores through KKL-JNF’s open areas, thereby managing to prevent approximately 80% of fires in open areas,” Tibi tells ISRAEL21c.
The herd-based efforts aren’t exclusive to Israel’s wildlife organizations. The IDF has been deploying units of antelopes and sheep for over a decade, as a way of mitigating fire risks and reducing snake populations on military bases and secret installations. This is particularly useful in areas where the risk of fire is greater, such as ammunition storerooms and stockpiles.
They’re so useful in the IDF in fact, that some bases have hundreds of animals roaming and grazing, and have devoted a special unit to managing them, the Nature Defense Team.
As California’s wildfires remind us of the devastating impact of forest fires, Israel’s approach shows that sometimes the best solution is to fight fire with fauna.