Be it scrubby, brushy, leafy, prickly, or even poisonous, chances are Lani Malmberg’s goats will eat it. Guided by her border collies and portable electric fencing, Malmberg’s 1,500-strong herd roams the West munching through overgrown brush up to eight feet high (while standing on their hind legs), filling their bellies while protecting Colorado and other states from wildfires.
Firefighters call the vegetation on the goats’ menu a fuel ladder, a flammable link that allows ground fires to easily leap into the tree canopy above. Eliminate the rungs, and you slow a blaze’s growth. Malmberg’s herd also “eats the problem and recycles it,” she says—i.e., as they browse, they poop. That boosts organic matter in the soil, increasing the land’s ability to hold water and reducing erosion. Plus, the mass of…